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This is the Home of Prof. V. L. Lester, which was 
completed Sept., 1917 on one of the most popular streets 
of Colored people in the city, 416 Campbell St. 

This home costed $5000 




























































There is no place like home’^ {the South) 
why prosecute me and I am innocent. 
Let us live Together In Unity 


MOB VIOLENCE 


And The 


American Negro 


ina tlse 

Suiiiay Nouth** 

--B Y-- 

PROF. V. L. LESTER 

WINONA, MISS. 


Copyr*ig:tntecl 
Price $1.00 








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- NOV-61913 ■ 


©CI,A535608 





I 



PROF. V L. LESTER, 

The World's Famous Lecturer and Author, 

Better known as''The Mississippi Lester** 
























4* 


»• 


1 


»(■ '» ■ 




* 


INTRODUCTION. 


My friend of many years and parishioner for three 
yeais has asked me to write a brief introduction to this 
volume. I do not see the need of any such preface. Mr. 
Lester is so well known the country over that to under- 
tirke to make him better known is like trying to paint 
the lily over or adding another color to the rainbow, yet 
I am under such manifold obligation to the author I am 
glad to comply with any request of his. 

Mr. Lester has not attempted anything approaching to 
a complete portrait gallery of his usefulness and sacri¬ 
fices that he has made for his race and country. 

This man, fearless as a lion and harmless as a* dove, 
is better known in his home town, Winona, Miss., as 
“The Stranger’s Friend.” 

Kis confidence in humanity and his sympathy for the 
unfortunate always keep the door of his heart, as well 
as the door of his palatial home open for reception of 
those that need has aid. 

My conception of Christianity is not found irr the man 
that shouts the loudest, but in the man’s good deeds. I 
am not trying to give a sketch of the life of the author, 
but I don’t think it would be out of place for me to men¬ 
tion a few of the unthought of deeds of this good man. 

One rainy morning an old deaf, dumb and blirid man 
was seen wandering around the streets. Simon, or Sime, 
as everybody called him, could find his way almost to 
any place he had been to more than once, but on the 
above mentioned morning Sime seemed greatly in trouble 
as he plodded along feeling his way and muttering as 
any mute would. It was evidently seen that “Sime” 
was lost. 

In the meantime men and women would pass by him, 
some with jest, some would taunt him, 'while the better 



9 


would pity.liim and wonder where he stayed and where 
he was trying to go. Finally, as I was going down the 
street behind Sime, he met' the author of this book, and 

leaving the beaten path steped intd'the deep mud in the 
street and took hold of Sime’s hand. Sime, as was his 
way, began to use his sense of touch to determine who 
this friend was. He gave a careful examination, and 
when he put his hand on his head, he knew it was his 
friend Mr. Lester. So at the very moment Sime knew 
who his friend was he threw both arms around him, and 
Mr. Lester’s arms at the same time went around Sime 
and an old-time shout w ent up and for" a few minutes it 
would have touched the heart of any individual to see 
sujch a demonstration in the muddy street. 

j ' - . 

I was somewhat curious to know the cause of Sime’s 
love for Mr. Lester, and on investigation I found that 
]\Ir. Lester had given him one of his nice rent houses to 
live in and was furnishing him with food and wood. A 
few days before, or rather the day before this incident, 
Mr. Lester had moved Sime out of a four-room house 
into a tw’o-room house, so being in a new place he losi 
his way to Mr. Lester’s home, as he“Avas accustomed to 
go forc his breakfast. 

Every unfortunate stranger that comes through Wi¬ 
nona' finds = his way to Mr. Lester, and always find oom- 
fort and help from this good man. 

I could write a whole chapter concerning the worli 
and worth of Mr. Lester in the church. He is the preat i- 
ers’ friend, and his home is the abode of nearly all 
the visiting preachers ir, the city. 

Now, dear reader, it wmuld be unjust for me to close 
this sketch without mentioning the two things that 
showed to me the real spirit of the author. When war 
was declared he was the first man in Winona to give a 
son to fight for democracy and the Stars and Stripes. 
He has only twm boys, and both volunteered, the younger 
being only 17 years old. But not withstanding the sacri¬ 
fice of these boys, Mr. Lester was the leading man of his 


3 


race in all of the war drives. He laid down his work and 
gave his time unstintingly to his country; 

Second. When the great and destructive influenza epi¬ 
demic was ravishing our town, the government had called 
away all of our doctors except two or three, and those 
that were left were sick with the exception of one, and 
terrible was our condition—one doctor and more than 
six hundred cases. In one home there were eleven down. 
I was doing all I could do; being on foot I could not get 
around as fast as I desired, so Mr. Lester took me in his 
buggy and we began the fight together. I cannot point 
the dreadful condition the town was in, but the condition 
was so serious that relief stations were opened to furnish 
the poor and needy with medicine and food. All during 
the day Mr. Lester and his faithful horse, Joe, could be 
seen with his buggy loaded dowm with buckets filled wdth 
soup and other -nourishing things for the sick. 

Mr. Lester is also zealous to bring about a better rela¬ 
tion and a better understanding between the white and 
black races. His denunciation against mob violence is 
bitter, but pleads for just treatment and a fair deal in 
court and equal protection from the authorities of the law. 

Yours sincerely, 

W. H. H. MTORELL, 

Pastor of Haven Memorial M. E. Church,. 

Winona, Miss^ 




4 


MY LECTURE AT ROOKPORT THAT NEARLY 
CAUSED MY DEATH. 


True Man and Womanhood. 

The joy that cheers us most in this life springs from 
our worthy acts and good deeds which we have performed. 
Let us study the things which promote peace and prog¬ 
ress. Let the adornment of the young woman be that 
of character and intellect and not the false showing of 
expensive clothes. 

Pray that confusion may come to an end and sweet 
peace cover the earth as the waters do the deep. Take 
heed, my friends, while the doors of the twentieth cen¬ 
tury are opened to you. Choose ye this day the road that 
leads to eternal life. 

These thoughts pondered in the heart will show to the 
outward world that we are members of some Christian 
organization. This one can testify from past experience 
and knowledge, that the way to the Celestial City is de¬ 
lightful and leads to a mansion above. 

No sacrifice is too great, if victory comes at the end. 
With this thought in view, let us go to the work of this 
year. With a high purpose that will call forth our clever¬ 
est thoughts, tenderest sympathies and earnest resolves 
to the end that we may accomplish that which will make 
us happy children, better citizens, and our deeds will be 
handed down to generations yet unborn. 

My friends, let your lives be so clean and upright be¬ 
fore God that only the Grand Architect of the Universe 
could have designed it better. 

Let those of you wdio are in the broad way that leads to 
death eternal return and enter through Christ into the 


■ 


* 

itT'i' 



5 


marvelous light of His countenance, wherein the world 
cannot reward you here. 

Let us lay aside foolishness and feed the people on the 
bread of truth. Think of the condition of our schools 
and churches some forty years ago and compare those of 
that time with our institutions of today. Why not let 
your thoughts improve like the works of industry and 
education have done these many years? 

You may lay out your plans for a long life, but you had 
better prepare to meet your God. Do all you can every 
day of your life for the upbuilding of our people. You 
are not too old to do something for your Master. 

Some of the best works that the world has ever seen 
were written after the authors began to think that they 
were too old. Isaac Walton wrote his biography after he 
was eighty. Christopher Wren continued in architecture 
until he was eighty-six. Cato learned the Greek language 
at eighty; Hobbes at eighty-seven wrote vigorously and 
transplanted the ‘Hlliad,” and Fontenelle wrote “Mem¬ 
oirs” of his own life at one hundred and fifteen years. 

The man who reads books, newspapers and travels, 
knows of the great evil that intemperance is doing in this 
country and its damnable effect upon the human race. 
After a man sees all of this and tries not to check it, in 
my estimation, he is a poor citizen and is a promoter of 
wickedness and a criminal, too. I appeal to the higher 
powers, don’t protect, the people only for money, but be¬ 
cause it is your duty to protect them. 

The Bible says that the wicked shall be cast into hell 
with all nations that forget God. I say today, let us pray 
and work day and night until we shall have succeeded in 
putting out of the way drunkenness, adulteries, loafers, 
liars, thieves and all other bad characters from our land. 

If we can’t stop the wicked, then let us ask God to take 
them from among us. 0! my friends, just think, Christ 
said. Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden 


6 


and I will give you rest. It is the laborer only that is 
invited into the mansion of rest. Whiskey takes your 
money, injures your body and weakens your mind, then 
vdiiskey has injured you in a great many ways. A great 
many of our people call themselves Christians who run 
hotels and other public places, yet they keep rooms to 
rent to bad characters. They may be money-getters, but 
bad citizens and no Christians at all. 

Many people of our cities delight in skating rooms 
and beer gardens, but the right name for them is schools 
of evil doings that are sure to carry your boys and girls 
to ruin and an endless punishment. You never knew of a 
loyal Christian to run such places. If they were a good 
thing then they would be attached to some Christian 
church. What is not good, then it is evil. The Bible says, 
go ye into all the world and preach My gospel to every 

creature. Not one place does it say to build up things 
to lead our people to a burning hell. 

Oh! father and mother, do not encourage such things. 
They wdll prepare your souls for the degraded walks of 
life. Step by step they go from one degree of crime to 
another, until they land in a devil’s hell, leave father, 
mother, kindred and friends to grieve their demise. Such 
characters work shame and disgrace in our country. They 
become robbers of virtue and capital offenders. This is 
enough to stir the blood and manhood of every law-abid¬ 
ing citizen throughout our land. Whiskey deranges thr 
minds of men and women who are led by its influences, 
wdiich finally dispatches them to a life-time disgrace. 
AVhiskey is the worst enemy to Christianity. Whiskey 
makes the murderer and causes many to go insane. Whis¬ 
key makes orphans of children and paupers of the rich. 
It is the co-partner of gambling dens which leads its in¬ 
mates to an untimely grave. Whiskey allures many of 


our noblest girls to everlasting shame. Whiskey crowds 
the city courts, and every Monday morning the fines in¬ 
crease the city treasury. Whiskey sends thousands yearly 
to a drunkard’s grave, it robs our people of their homes 
and causes them to lose self-respect and care for God. 
Why should you indorse any public place that is not fit 
for your wives and daughters, mothers and sisters to visit? 
If I were you I would not go there either. 

The railroad companies will not hire a man for a single 
day if they know that he drinks, then why will you girls 
value your good sense and moral standing by joining 
bauds with him as a life partner? 

Life insurance companies will not insure a drunkard’s 
life, then why will you have the confidence in yourself 
to manage such a being when these companies will not 
risk them. Oh! mothers, save your boys. What a power 
a mother has! Mother, have you forgotten your power 
handed from Mother Eve doAvn to our day? 

Woman has a great power for good or for evil. A 
woman’s nobility consists in the exercise of a Christian 
character and influences; and when I ponder upon the 
powerful influences of Eve upon her husband and the 

whole human race I conceive that the frail arm of a 
woman can strike a blow which will resound through all 
eternity, in the dungeons as well as upon the heights. 

The requisite is to live a clean Christian life, the next 
is to raise God-fearing children. Put this impression upon 
their minds whi^e the}^ are young—1o be truthful, honest, 
loving and obedient—this will show them the wav to 
heaven. And the only way is to love God with all of your 
heart, soul, mind and strength. Thirdly, to treat your 
neighbor as yourself or as you would have others to treat 
you. Who is my neighbor? Any one who will administer 
to me in the time of need. Mothers, teach your children 
to be kin^ to them that are oppressed, for as the wind 


8 


changes and the river rises so do nations. God says, love 
one another, go out into the highways and the hedges, 
find them and compel them to come to Christ. The way 
to make the people better is to be kind to them and teach 
them what God would have them to do, then you live 
what you teach. Be as honest as the artist was when he 
was called upon to paint the likeness of Alexander 
the Great. Alexander had an ugly scar on his forehead 
that would ruin the picture in the estimation of his ad¬ 
mirers, so the painter concluded to leave the scar off be¬ 
cause it would not give a perfect likeness. So the artist 
decided to make the painting. Alexander, leaning with 
his arm on the table, with fingers over the scar, the artist 
paint d a perfect likeness of Alexander the Great. Draw¬ 
ing out the things of anyone’s life, seek for the good, and 
the bad will try to hide forever. Cover them with good 
things or else they will ruin your life. 

There were many union soldiers wounded in the battle 
of Fredericksburg, and as these soldiers lay dying on the 
field, a Southern soldier was seen to take a supply of 
water and carry it to the sufferer as he lay in agony and 
blood. When the General say the act of this brave man 
and what he intended to do, they suspended fighting for 
one hour in order that the man might finish his acts of 
kindness. For every charitable act you will be rewarded. 
Don’t confine your good deeds, for God will reward you. 
Never let vain thoughts enter and contaminate the mind 
with evil deeds or desire. Our thoughts are ever forming 
over our characters and whatever they take in, it will 
tinge our lives. Take the first lesson, it takes a life-time 
to build a reputation but it takes only a moment to lose 
it or lay it down. This shows to you that no man is safe 
unless he continues to go upward. Many have risen high 
in the sphere of life that leads to true manhood and Godli¬ 
ness, but by living reckless lives and being led by others, 
they fell to eternal misery, shame and woe. 

What a blessing every man has his choice, he can 
choose upward or downward. 

Sincerity is the first step to virtue and noble living. 
So, man without this essential quality is not a man. Kito 


9 


was a deaf pauper, a hopeless case you would say, and 
yet he became one of the greatest biblical scholars of his 
time. Let this be a lesson to you, let out your powers and 
you will save some one from shame and ruin. Disraeli, 
the young Hebrew, on being hissed from the House of 
Commons, said that the time would come when vou will 
hear me. So true to his words he forced his way through 
race prejudice and surprised England. 

Don’t be discouraged because your chances are not as 
good as someone else’s, but push your way. Henry Fau- 
cett had both of his eyes shot out by his father while out 
hunting. This grieved the father very much, but Henry 
told his father to never mind that, blindness shall not 
interfere with my success, and Henry became prime min¬ 
ister of that country. So don’t get discouraged, but go 
on to success. 

Charles Lamb, who was addicted to strong drink, said 
that if men could see as he now does, why they would 
never take the first tempting drink—they would flee 
from this great evil. This habit has carried many a man 
downward and he cannot help himself, but he can never 
forget when he was at the point to choose between good 
and evil. 

My friends, the only way to be a man or woman of 
credit to your community is to lay aside frivolity and 
build up a solid foundation, then build and shape your 
life so that men can read your thoughts and rejoice in 
the beautiful way in which you have shaped your charac¬ 
ter, and others will tread in your foot-prints and follow 
vou to the end. 

C' 

Let us 1/e heroes, go out with the helmet of salvation on 
your head, the shield of faith, to protect the body, shoes 


10 


of the gospel to peace on your feet, your loins girded 
about with truth, breast plate of righteousness, and the 
sword of the spirit in your hands. 

When you have on this full armor you don’t like to lay 
around the fort but go out into the field where Avork it to 
be done and victories achieved for the Lord. You read 
in the papers of great ball players winning different 
games and are being crowned with success, as the heroes. 
You may also read Avhere a man has on the championship 
as a great fighter. But this may seem great in the eyes 
of some people, but with God it is nothing but shame. 
For this class it does not require a moral temperament. 
So let that kind of heroism go and be a hero for God in 
order that you may gain an everlasting life. 

This is what it takes for a man to be a hero. A man that 
looks high and believes in purity and graces, a more 
worthy aspiration for the royal manhood of todaj^ Eng¬ 
land’s Prince is no longer great because he is a prince. 
Every man is measured by what he is. 

Yield not to temptations but shape your end well and 
you will be a hero, and that will help to make others 
great. This is what the world needs today: Moral heroes, 
spiritual heroes. Anyone can slide doAvn hill but to rise 
it requires some efforts. Try to help yourself and others 
will help you. Be God’s heroes. 

Long suffering, forbearance and self-denial in pointing 
other souls to a purer and nobler life in Him who is able 
to defend us. Parents, remember your children and others 
who are coming after you, so take the straight path for 
they are going to step in your foot-prints. 

Fathers, remember that your sons Avill call for the 
same drink that you take, so call for Avater and thus save 


11 


your sons from eternal ruin. Today is the only chance 
for you to save your boys and girls, so be a hero for God. 

A set of men were crossing a mountain of Scotland and 
they came to a place where only eagles and angels had 
been. These men were studying the works of God in the 
rocks and flowers as well as the beautiful sceneries. They 
saw some flowers on a projection which was too danger¬ 
ous for them to try to get. They saw a man and his son 
near by and they called to the boy and told him that they 
would tie the rope around his waist and let him down to 
the flowers, then draw him back, and they would give 
him a great reward for the flowers, as they were a beau¬ 
tiful specimen of rare beauties which they were very 
anxious to obtain. 

The father consented because the boy had been lowered 
so many times to the sea bird’s nest. The boy looked 
around at the men and said, ‘ ‘ I will go if father will hold 
the rope.” Why not you launch out and fight for God? 
When He says that He is with you always, even to the 
end. And God is able to tear down and build kingdoms, 
care for the sick and raise the dead. Don’t fear any one, 
but be a hero. Don’t think that you are so powerful that 
you can drive men like sheep or cut a world out of paper, 
for you are as shallow as a milk pan. There are others 
who will soon find out that you are as empty as an 
electric globe and there is plenty of room for improve¬ 
ment, and they will say, 0‘ what a great head, but there 
is but a little in it. 

A good many people continue to talk but never say 
anything. I heard of a learned man boiling his watch for 
an egg, and another one forgetting that he was to get 
married on a certain day, and he would have lost his 
lady had not a friend of his led him out of his study. 

Think of this, boys, and rejoice to know that you have 
not so much learning that it would cause you to lose re¬ 
spect for those who are not so well up to modern improve¬ 
ments. A boy was raised by a widowed mother, one that 
loved him beyond excess. This widow sent the boy to 
school and she had to wash in order to keep him in school. 


12 


This Avoman longed to see the day come for her boy.to 
graduate. The years rolled on and she continued to rub 
clothes. The time came for her son to graduate, the 
mother was delighted to knoAv it because she had toiled 
so long in order that he might be prepared for life’s 
duties. This Avidow being bent by the effects of many 
years’ labor oA'er the wash tub, put her in a someAAdiat 

ugly shape. She began to rejoice in telling her friends of 
the day that her son Avas to graduate and she AAms going 
to be there and that Avould be the happiest day of her 
life and when she saw her son graduate it Avould pay her 
for all that she had done for him. The old lady sent her 
son a new suit of clothes and told him of the day that she 
would be there herself. So the old lady Avith the assist¬ 
ance of her friends prepared for the trip but the day be¬ 
fore she A\ms to start she received a letter from her son, 
saying, “Mother, don’t come here; you have always been 
in the country and are not up Avith city style and your 
coming would be unpleasant for us both, for you don’t 
know how to act.” 

This dear mother melted down in tears and grief, but 
she tried to apologize for her son, but she wms never happy 
any more and soon died of grief. Never forget mother. 
Let this be a lesson for you boys and girls. 

There was an old horse that had done service at a bark 
mill for many years, so on account of his age he was set 
free for the remainder of his life. At the time of day for 
him to do his work he would go around in a circle, the 
passersby Avould stop and look at him and Avere led to 
say, “Oh, the force of habit has fixed itself on him.” Let 
this be a warning to you. One of our greatest Generals 
filled an early grave by the habit of smoking. So be 
careful about your habits in early life. Let your mind 
and daily walks be for the good only, the indolent can- 


13 


not, by a wish, become iiidnstrious, nor the spendthrift 
frugal, nor the libertine virtuous. The habit of control¬ 
ling our thoughts in tune with truth, virtue and cheer¬ 
fulness, will insure beauty and harmony in character. 
The will is the main note, let it assume its rights. Now 
is the time, for regret will not change your course. So if 
you have any bad habits change them today. You who 
have done wrong, why don’t you see as the prodigal son 
did. He began his journey back and continued until he 
had reached his father’s home. So he had to eat no 
more husk, neither to feed swine in order to live. Pie 
found plenty of room as 3^011 v/ill find if ^mu will only 
consider that ^mur way is not our Father’s way, which 
bids vou to come home. To nourish in the heart no evil 
claims and purposes is not in itself sufficient for the at¬ 
tainments of life’s true end. Some of the noblest aims 

have been to evaporate resolutions into thin air. A con¬ 
viction of duty, right desires and good resolves are all 

needed, but they are not enough, for convictions must be 
carried out, desires transplanted into deeds, and resolves 

crystalized into solid facts. _ ' ^ 

There is nothing in daj" dreams or wishing for improve¬ 
ments. Get up and go to doing something and jmu will 
fill .your mission. The world is full of people of good in¬ 
tentions with their millions in the banks. They thiii^^ 

of many things that they could do, but they do none of 

them. So he is no good to the poor and the suffering, and 
they keep their mone.y hoarded up while they need their 
assistance. Stop talking of what you would do if you 
had the means, while at the same time there are ten thou¬ 
sand of things that you could do if ^mu would and it 
would be a great benefit to our people. 


14 


Clieer up, and live a clean life and teach the truth. 

DonH be narrow and only want to do good to your own 
people, but help all that you can in every good way. 
There was a certain rich man who wanted a servant, and 
he tried a good many of them. So he asked one how near 
could he drive to the gulf without danger. The servant 
said four feet, another said three feet, another said three 
inches, another said one and one-half inches, and the last 
one said, ‘‘Kind sir, I would drive you just as far from 
that gulf as I could.” 

The rich man said that you are the one I want, that is 
the kind of an individual that God wants. Stay away 

from bad places, don’t allow things to be with you as it 
was with the king eagle and the humming bird. The 
eagle whips all of the other birds that come near him, 
but the humming bird sits on the eagle’s head, pecks and 
pecks until he injures the brain of the eagle and some¬ 
times causes the eagle’s death. So it is with some people, 
they seek the weak spots in the lives of others and they 
continue to peck at their influence and good name and 
character until he or she kills the person. The Bible says: 
“Thou shalt not kill.” Follow that precept in letter and 
in spirit. Amen. 


15 


IN HATTIESBURG 


The Treatment of the Right Kind of Men With the Same 
And How to Make Friends of All Men. 


Leaving’ behind me all that T knew among negroes of 
Missisippi’s capital city, 1 soon found myself among 
strangers in a strange land. As the giant engine made its 
way and time rolled on, in a short time we arrived at 
Hattiesburg, Miss. Here I found many colored people 
having all the comforts of life, colored people, good and 
bad men and women as both are in the world together 
and cannot be entirely separated until the day of the gen¬ 
eral judgment wdien Jesus will make the separation. 

Tile first occurrence on my arrival there was the meet¬ 
ing of a stranger who led me to a white restaurant for 
luncheon, which was served in a paper bag from the 
kitchen. On my way back to the train he said to me: 
^‘As I find you to be a gentleman, kind sir, I present to 
you this pint of old-. ” 

My friend, said I, I will declare to you that I never 
tasted that kind of a drink in my life. I am a temperance 
man, a teetotaler, kind sir, in all fhings intoxicating 

He said, ‘‘Sir, pardon me, I thought you was a preach¬ 
er.” Why, my kind sir, do preachers drink whiskey ? He 
answered: “All I deal with do.” I then handed him one 
of my books on “Temperance, Truthfulness and Honesty.” 
As 1 heard the conductor’s “all aboard,” I boarded the 
train. 

Looking before me I saw the head of a white gentle¬ 
man whom I knew. Said I, “Good morning, Mr. Porter.” 
“Why, hello there, Lester, how are you this morning?” 





16 


Thanking him kindly, in my accustomed way, with good 

manners of etiquette, he handed me his hand, giving me 
that friendly grip of a pure-blooded Anglo-Saxon that 
boasts of its purity, to which I gladly responded as a ‘‘Son 
of Ham.” Said he, “AVhere are you going, Lester?” To 
Gulfport, I replied. “Where are you going, Mr. Porter.” 
“I am goin gto Gulfport to try to purchase some property, 
Lester.” So am I, Mr. Porter, said I. About that time the 
train started off and I said to him, I will see you in the 
city, Mr. Porter. “ 0 . K.,” Lester,” he replied. I rushed 
up, caught on to my car and the giant engine ploughed on 
through space until evening when we arrived at the long- 
wished for city and port. 

Now the first thing that attracted my attention was the 
beautiful station house, with separate waiting rooms, for 
turn races of people, and ever3dhing beautifully arranged. 


ON MY ARRIVAL AT GULFPORT AND WHAT I 
EXPERIENCED IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. 


At the hotel the proprietor, a fine and courteous gen¬ 
tleman, running a first-class business with no blind tiger 
connected, to the left a fine dining room, with beautiful 
fruit pictures on the walls, and polished tables to serve 
the guests, in the pantry was everything to be found that 
was palatable and nourishing for a visitor. After getting 
iready for lunch and partaking of aomfe of the daintie* 
made one fall in love with the hostess, they then carried 
me to the second floor and presented me to a seat on the 
front gallry. For thirty minutes I enjoyed the cool breeze 
:and looked southward over the great waters of the deep, 
and seeing the giant ships playing their part through the 
mighty waters. Aft^r this I was assigned to my room 
• Avhere I made a change in costume and prepared for the 




17 


church, which was only a short distance over the sandy 
street to make. I heard an able sermon by a black man. 

1 rutnrned to the hotel and rested from my labors. I 
awakened on the morning of the eighth of August on the 
gulf coast, and only a few hundred feet of land between 
the great waters and me. 

Everybod}^ seemed to be happy on their way to their 
work—whistling, humming and laughing. Then I was 
forced to say, surely this was the happiest place that I 
had ever seen. Good many people get mad when you 
awake them early in the morning, but way down in Dixie 
it makes them jubilant and jolly. 

At 9 o’clock I met my man, Mr. Porter, the white man 
that I mentioned at Hattiesburg, was one. Hello, Lester. 
Good morning, Mr. Porter. He at once said to his friend, 
when I was asking the people of Lester, or if they knew 
of his whereabouts, did I misrepresent him as far as you 
can see, Mr. Lewis? I told you that he was a man, and 
far beyond the average in looks, dress, manners, behavior, 
costume, intelligence, and a fine-looking colored man. 

Mr. Lewis’ answer was: ‘‘He is all 0. K., and I find 
him only for business, so I like that of Lester. Now, boys, 
let us go. Mr. Porter, you sit behind and let Lester sit 
by me.” So we got into the carriage, drove through the 
city. Mr. Lewis took great pains in showing me all of his 
property in that section of the city, the manufactories and 
all of the improvements, both school and churches and the 
homes of the noted negroes of that part of the state. Now, 
Lester, I am going out this evening and I would be glad 
for you to go with me. Owing to a previous engagement, 
Mr. Lewis, I am sorry that I cannot go. When can you 
go? I will go Tuesday morning. “All right, I will look 
for you. Come down to my home, Lester, for breakfast. 
We eat about 7:30.” Thank you, Mr. Lewis. So I took 
a car went speeding along a beautiful beach, finally the 
conductor came to me and said': ‘ ‘ Where are you going t ’ ’ 


18 


I want to get off at Mr. I. E. Lewis’. All 0. K. How will 
I know, I said to the conductor. You will find his house 
to have a brick basement, large columns of a very choice 
style, a fine building painted white with a pair of steps 
extending to the second story, $20,000 building. Thank 
you, sir. I found Mr. Lewis as the gentleman had said. I 
met him as the same courteous white man as he was long 
ago which had only made him king. 

Mr. Lewis told the old colored man to hitch up the 
single buggy, now we will be off. We took in the farming 
sections of the truck farmers, as much as we could cover 
by one o’clock. Met one truck farmer who had in four 
years paid for 16U acres of land, paying from $25.00 to 
$50.00 per acre and during this time he had banked $53,- 
000.00 to his credit, August 8. 

Another man had in one year made $300.00 on one acre 
of land and so on, and many other things I might write 
you of my experience, but I have not the time now, but 
J will when I have more time. 

Now back to Mr. Lewis. When we got to his home I 
wanted to go right on to my boarding house. No, you 
must stay and get dinner, so I did at this beautiful home 
away down in Dixie and on Long Beach, and in this fine 
house is where I had the privilege of dining and trying 
the finest tribe for all of its worth, then the winged tribe 
for its fullest value, sweet potatoes, corn bread, beans, 
cabbage, lettuce, beets and so on, were raised on his farm. 

I certainly enjoyed my trip to the gulf coast. Mr. Lewk 
i« a real estate dealer and a gentleman. So Mr. Lewis 
and I came back to the bu«iness section of the city to¬ 
gether on the street cars. I went out on the pier owmed 
by Mr. Jones, of the G. & S. I. R. R. Saw many vessels 
loaded and unloaded from foreign countries, and there 
was employment for many of our men, working for rea¬ 
sonable wages. 


19 


Leaving the pier we went back to the business section. 
Found everything rushing. So many opportunities for 
the young negro in this coming city. Will be some day 
one of the greatest of this country. 

As long as I stayed in the city I was made welconip 
in every phase of business by both white and black 1 
talked with the business men and I found out that they 
wanted men and not a thing on the gulf coast they would 
give anything to get rid of the loafers, the liars and the 
thieves. Good-bye, Mr. Lewis. So we parted. Glad to 
know that they are shipping the bad element by degrees. 

If you are for business you are welcomed by all. I left 
on Wednesday for New Orleans, La., visited the great 
Pythian Temple immediately after my arrival in the city, 
and found there a fine-kept garden for the pleasure and 
enjoyment of the people. 

I found in this building some of our great men in their 
offices. I was introduced to a great many of the leading 
white men there. They all gladly received the introduction 
to a t-emperance man. I stayed until Sunday, then leav¬ 
ing, thinking I had done all the good that I could standing 
up for that which I thought to be right, i:i the name of the 
Lord. I went back to Gulfport over the L. & N. R. R. I 

met a man who was a stranger, though he invited me to his 
home. Wanted me to lecture in the protracted meeting, 

which was going on. I accepted the invitation, thinking I 
could do the people some good by so doing. I went with 
the brother to his town; found it a fine looking little vil¬ 
lage, then the conveyance of his own took me to his coun¬ 
try home. 

As we were going one had to wait for something, so a 
man came up to me and said, ‘MIello, my friend, do you 


know where you are V’ I told him that I did not. ^ ou 
do not unless you have been here before—have you?’’ 
“No, sir, this is my first visit.” 

Do you know where the word Xmas-gift came froni? 
Now, sir, 1 answered him, when God first met the devil, 
the devil said, “Good morning, God.” The Lord said, 
“Good morning, devil.” The devil said to the Lord, 
“Xmas-gift.” So the Lord said, “I will give you certain 
countries in Mississippi, and this is one of them.” “And 
this has been Hell ever since,” was the answer to the man. 

Well, I guess that I am like the old preacher that went 
off into the high grass to study his Sunday’s sermon and 
went to sleep, as most colored people will do, when they 
begin to read the Bible. While the old man was asleep 
some boys went all around the old man and set the grass 
on fire, and when the old man awoke and finding the fire 
all around him he said in a loud voice; “Been preaching 
forty years; this day I have awoke in hell at last. No more 
than what I had expected.” 

Now, I must make my way out. Just about this time the 
driver drove off, about 1:20 o’clock that night, of August 
14th. Monday morning Mr. Hayes took me in his buggy 
and carried me to the M. B. C. five or six miles further into 
the country, away in the furthermost part of heathenism. 
Two preachers preached, called for money, and opened 
the doors of the church, and then closed it, I supposed for 

the next services at 3 p.m. They declared that the doors 
would be opened by Brother Moore. 

Mr. Hayes told Brother Walls that he had a distin¬ 
guished brother who possessed a great deal of experience 
whom he wanted to introduce to the people of our vicinity. 
“All OK,” responded the brother. 

So the good man took great care in reading my card 
to the congregation, saying what he could for a stranger 
in my behalf. Brother Walls was seated. There were^ 
several white people on the outside. I extended a special 


21 


invitation to them asking them to come in and be seated, 
and they did so. 

I began by congratulating the two ministers for the able 
sermons which they had preached, then I asked the con¬ 
gregation to bear with me for five or ten minutes. I first 
called the attention of the parents to the filling up of their 
penitentiary and state farms by our boys and girls, and 
how fast, that the number was growing to 2000 in 45 years 

in one little state. Will you allow me, my dear friends, 
to t 11 you publicly how to stop this? “Yes, yes, yes,” 
was the answer. 

The first thing to do is to examine yourself, and see how 
you are spending your life before your sons'and daughters. 
First, lying on my neighbors and their families, breaking 
peace and happiness in any home which I can prey upon, 
will not pay my honest debts, hating the brother who is 
trying to live right and provide for his family. If one will 
save his or her earnings and come in possession of a re¬ 
spectable home and will not allow you to go and make a 
carpet of his loved ones. 

You who will not have anything will go to the people 
telling them lies on this good man in order to get him run 
out of the country or to lynch him. Won’t you do this? 
Answer, “Yes.” Then again some of you will go to the 
courts and swear lie against your brother or sister. Won’t 
you? “Yes, 3 ^es.” So by this time you are studying all 
the time how to steal the name of some poor virtuous in¬ 
dividual that you to be teaching how to stand up for the 
right and never to surrender to wrong. 

You will go into the white people’s houses, I mean these 
old Negro women, because that mistress will give you a 
cup of coffee and you will tell her everything that ever has 
happened in your part of the country for forty-five years 
back, on the Negro, you don’t know how much, in order 
to make it interesting. When you run out, then you be¬ 
gin to lie, and they come thick and fast, let it hurt whoever 
it may. 


22 


Chewing, dipping and drinking coffee, then lying on 
your brother, is your profession. AVhy don’t you be as 
the good white people, stand up for the right and die be¬ 
fore you will surrender to wrong things, then you will not 
mistreat anything which belongs to your race. 

Character, property, live stock, fowls, land, good name 
and nothing to hurt him, he thinks that he is rich. What 
a pity. Let him be rich, makediim rich, for one rich Ne¬ 
gro in a community is worth all of the worthless Negroes 
in the state. Not only that, if you will be honest and keep 
your good name, then your sons and daughters can marry 
in that rich man’s family. 

Oh, wliat a blessing it is for a Negro to be rich. When 
you are living on a farm where no one but Negroes live 
you can easily lie to the white people, and cause trouble. 
Now, my friends, that is why our sons and daughters are 
going so fast to shame and ruin. It is because nothing 
from nothing leaves nothing, and this class, which I might 
describe as jail birds, are the descendants of such char¬ 
acters. 

Clean, honest, Christian gentlemen and ladies can raise 
children of such a character that will inherit the earth. 
I will bless them to the third and fourth generation if you 
will keep my commandments, saith the Lord. And I will 
curse them if they fail to keep them. 

Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, might 
and strength and their neighbors as thyself. Do you do 
this? God means, brethren, that you must love the white 
man. the red man, and the yellow man, regardless of color, 
love him, do all the good that you can for them, and do by 
them as you would for them to do unto you. I know that 

it seems THAT SOME WHITE PEOPLE HATE A 
BLACK ]\IAN, THOUGH THAT IS NONE of your busi¬ 
ness—you love him, just the same. 

Jesus said for us to love one another, for you will have to 


23 


come unto judgment, only for yourself, so how can you 
keep from loving the white man of your oum Sunny Soulh 
and of the far North, East and West, the white man sailed 
upon the trackless blue sea to the jungles of Africa at the 
lusk of his own life, foitnd you perfectly wild and clothed 
in Ignorance not even knowing of a true and living God. 
So he took you up in filth and in chains brought you from 
that dark continent into this world of light and told vou 
of the true and living God, for many years. After keeping 
you for many years in slavery he saw that was not 
pleasing in God’s sight to hold ^mu as such; then the Civil 
Rights Bill was passed, which caused many to die upon 

the battlefields, and culminated into the greatest emanci¬ 
pation of the world. Then again think what a true friend 

the white man has been to us, for which the intelligent 
Negroes thank him for such favors. 


AVe were set free, and finding ourselves without food, 
clothing and shelter, my brethren, just think for a mo¬ 
ment, when I was hungry, who was it that gave me food? 
The white msn. AAdien I was naked who was it that gave 
me clothes? The white man of course? The white man, 
of course. AVhen I had no home, who was it that sold me 
land? When I had no monev, who loaned me the neces- 
saiy means by which to meet my oblig’ations ? The white 
man. of course. AVhen I was sick, who administered unto 
me? AA'^hen I was uncouth and ignorant, who taught me? 
The white man. 


If the white man turns his back on you, love him just 
the same, for the Southern whites have been our friends. 
Let us stand by the ones that have proven themselves to 
be worthy of our support. God will bless you. He is still 
helping to build your churches in order that our people 
may be better citizens—Christians—thereby becoming 
more friendly towards the white man. 

There are many Negroes who are willing to stand up for 
the right and die for the maintenance of the good names 


24 


of the blessed saints of our coimtr}^, let it be white or black. 
We don’t mean to protect a man any longer Avhen he is in 
the wrong, but we mean to die for the right. We want to 
do all the good we can to put an end to blind tigers, .lying, 
loafing, stealing and other bad things may be dispatched 
from our land. We, the better Negroes of the Sunny 
South, love the name, the land, the climate, the home and 
the people of the South, and we acknowledge that this is 
the place for the black man, and we ask you for your pro¬ 
tection as citizens of this country of yours and ours. 

Now, my friends, you must pardon me for my scattering 
remarks. The thing that I am trying to impress upon 
your minds is that the Negroes of the South have more 
land, money and homes, the smartest men and who 
are prepared for any vocation of life, than any other state 
in the Union, so we are living in the right place, if you will 
only learn to be pure and not full of deceit. Be a man, 
stand up for that which is only right, and don’t surrender 
to the wrong to any man, but die first. Be true to your 
trust, protect the virtue and the good name of your women, 
teach your daughters that when they have lost their good 
name they are then fit for nothing but to be trodden under 
the feet of men. I hope that the time will soon come when 
I can lecture to you. I hope that all confusion may soon 
come to an end this moment, or very soon, and that sweet 
peace forever may be yours. 

After this I received many a hearty handshake from the 

brothers and sisters. Four or five white men staved in the 

%/ 

building and finally made their way to me, grasped my 
hands, one the left and the other the right.. They said to 
me: ^‘We want you to lecture again on tomorrow. Your 
lecture is the best that I ever heard for the benefit of the 
preseht situation and to harmonize the two races. God 
bless 3 on. I hope and trust that my mother may be fort¬ 
unate enough to hear you. I will bring her tomorrow.” 


25 


“I am going: to bring my family tomorrow,” said one. 
And another one said; “I am certainly going to bring the 
girls,” and so on, were the encouraging remarks made by 
the white men. On Tuesda^^ 16th, I lectured. There were 
many whites, enough to fill the church, men and ladies. 
Had a glorious time. My subject was, “How and the 
only way we can live to raise noble Sons and Daughters.” 
This thrilled the hearts of many who had tried to live 
right, and for the benefit of the time that we now live and 
for future generations. For a man to do this he must be 
a clean man and temperate in all things, and learn to do 

things that will be a benefit to himself or some one else. 

• 

Abstain from chewing tobacco, smoking, burning up 
your daily earnings, and dipping snuff is one of the most 
disgusting thing that a man can practice,. Then, again, 

think of it; there is nothing in it but a source by which 
my money goes from me and my family and no one ben¬ 
efited. Then, again, cheAving, dipping and smoking are 

not decent. It is merely an old idle habit that our people 
took up Avhen they had nothing else to do. Now, at this 
age, if you go to learn this filthy habit, some boy or girl 
will be Aveakened and their Avay to a higher sphere in life 
Avili be tliAvarted, and in the near future you Avill have to 
look up to your superiors by borroAving money to pay 
your bills in order to hold up your good name. Any eco¬ 
nomical man could readily fill your Avants because he 
does not burn up his money, neither cheAv and spit it on 
the ground. You cannot afford to support a blind tiger, 
gentlemen, but you must try to get them from among us. 
There is only one. Avay to do this, and that is for the 
church to stop patronizing such indiAuduals, and if the 
preachers, teachers and members of the different churches 
Avill stop buying these filthy dregs, Avhy, the blind tigers 
Avill close and have to got out of business. 

There is nothing to benefit you in the rum traffic and 
drunkenness. Shame on a man Avho Avill be a habitual 
buyer from an unhiAvful retailer, Avhich is a violation of 


26 


the law, you should not support it. Such indulgence only 
prepares our sons and daughters for a degraded walk of 

life, cease to lose self-respect for parents, friends and God. 
Then let us try to stop such a practice by standing up for 
the right and not surrender to the wrong. Be men, stand 

up for Christ, for He invites you in to that mansion of 
rest if you will only labor for Him. Now, my dear friends, 
let us love one another and be true to the trust, and live 
as God would have us to live ; then again think of the ef¬ 
fects that whiskey has upon our people. It is no friend 
to you. It takes your money from you, injures your mind 

to a great extent. At times it puts you in a state of uncon¬ 
sciousness so that you don’t know your mother, thu» 
losing self-control of your own body and mind. 

.Oh, what a pity you can’t see this is no friend to you. 
When rum boasts to the devil, telling him it will get that 
trustee, class leader, steward or deacon of that church, if 

you will make old John believe that he can get rich, by 
exposing me only to the members of the church, and the 
members of the lodge. Odd Fellows, Masons, Pythians, 
Woodmen, Knights of Honor, and these other little or¬ 
ders, which we have. 

Oh, oh, brother! what a mistake that you are making 
when you force the mind to be bent upon such stuff. A 
damnable poison to destroy manhood and womanhood. 
You must suffer for it if your children will suffer the 
consequences, and convicts will be made of your sons and 
your daughters, thus chaining hand and foot, for a de¬ 
graded walk in life. 

Yv"hat can you promise good for your people but a de¬ 
graded career in life when you carry them and put them 
in the path that leads to evil doings. 0 Avhat a blessing 
when men can see their mistakes in life, and will love 
right in the place of wrong. Will you be for Christ? If 
so, be a hero, stand up for the right, and never surrender 
to the wrong thing. God bless you all. I thank you. 


27 


CHAPTER XI. 

On August 18th I arrived at Jackson, Mississippi, at 11 
a.m. with a glad heart, thinking that I had done a great 

good in the lower part of Mississippi. Friday morning, 
the 19th, I began telling my many friends of my joy and 
success as a Christian lecturer—had added to the church 
forty-two souls. 

Now, I am going out on tomorrow for a greater work. 
Saturday evening I boarded a Gulf & Ship Island train, 
stopped at D’Lo. There I met my friend, who took me 
to his house and gave me all the comfort that that vicin¬ 
ity could afford. Sunday morning was a bright and glo¬ 
rious one. I awoke with the birds in their own language 
singing their sweet songs, seemingly to be praising the 
God from whom all blessings flow. I arose at once and 
bowed in my humble way to thank God, the Father, for 
His Son, Jesus, and for my knowledge of Him who died 
that you and I might have eternal life. So filling the com¬ 
mand of the Divine Spirit it came to me as a natural voice, 
saying, am with you always.” 

This made me feel that I am a “Child of the King.” I 
was called to breakfast, and while sitting at the table 
thinking how I was to get seven miles into the country 
today, a young man said to me: ‘ ‘ Doctor, I cannot carry 
you, for all the teams are out—not a one in the livery 
stable.” 

At that moment a man, a stranger, came to the door 
and said, “Dr. Lester, I will carry you in my hack.” 

‘ ‘ Thank you, my friend, I thought that God would provide 
some way.” At 10 o’clock the man called for me. I got 
ready at once and we started on that hot summer day for 
seven miles in an open top hack. We got to the church 

The church was surrounded by buggies, wagons and 
all safe and sound, although everything was very hot. 

people. I went into the churchyard, and as I entered the 
gate I was met by a black boy, seemingly to be eighteen 
years of age, tall and slender. 


28 


‘‘Doctor, I am glad to see you. I met you at Rockport. 
Do you remember me?” “Yes, I remember your face. 
Now, I cannot help but tell you, although you keep it to 
yourself, for it may not be so. I heard the white people 
said that they were going to break your neck just as soon 
as you made jmur appearance in lower Mississippi.” 

“Why, my brother, that cannot be, because I belong to 
God, although I thank you for telling me. What are they 
wanting to kill me for?” “Well, I don’t know, though it 

is something the}^ claimed that some Negroes told them 
that you are teaching the colored people down here.” 

“You don’t know, then, wdiat it was, do you?” 

“No, sir.” 

“Well, I know what I am teaching all the people. First: 
Is to love God with all of your heart, might and strength, 
and his neighbors as himself, and to do this he must be a 
good citizen by being temperate in all things, then be 
truthful and honest. 

‘ ‘ My dear friend, if any white man on God’s green earth 
wants to kill a poor helpless Negro for trying to lecture 
and persuade his people to be better citizens in order that 
they may raise better boys and girls and prepare them for 
more trustier servants, teach them to stand for the right 
as God wants them, and not bow to wrongdoings, but die 
first. 

“We want men and women and must have them, and if I 
am to die for the right I will have to die. So, good-bye, 
my boy, I don’t believe that any white man in the world 
would try to hurt me when he finds out that I am trying 
to t ach my people to love the right and stick to it, then 
we will be able to save them from shame and ruin. By 
this time we will be able to raise sons and daughters. 

“The Negro is trying to accuse me of wrong doing, but 

I am going to lecture right here today. Brother R., how 
are jmu?” 

“I am all nght, Doctor, how are you?” 

‘ ‘ I am wel I. thank you. ’ ’ 


29 


“Have you met the pastor” 

“No, sir, I have not.” 

“Come right in. I am an officer here, feel welcome just 
as thought you were at your home church. / 

“Doctor, I have heard of your wonderful lecture at other 
places. Glad to have you with us. Rev. H., meet Doctor 
Lester, from New Orleans.” , n 

“Oh, Doctor, how do you do? I am more than glad to 
meet such a wonderful lecturer as you are. You shall 
speak to my congregation at this service.” 

“Thank vou, Reverend.” 

“My dear members and friends, I take great pleasure in 

introducing to you one of the greatest colored orators on 
the American soil, whom I hope that you will gladly re¬ 
ceive him as your speaker for this occasion.” 

Rev. H. took his seat. The congregation arose to their 
feet to extend to me a welcome. 

I congratulated the worthy pastor upon having such 
a refined audience. My subject was: “How are you 
spending your life before your sons and daughters? Are 
you living for Christ?” Only a few of us want our boys 
and girls to be saints. Oh, how strange it is that you 
chew, smoke, dip, and drink all kinds of intemperate 

drinks, get drunk, come home, curse, swear and fight 
your wdfe, and still want the children to be saints. Is this 
not strange? Then, again, you will buy rum and sell it 
to a minor or anybody, you that will not turn you up for 
violating the law by unlawful retailing, that old drug 
that has filled many a prison with our sons and daugh¬ 
ters. It has taken our money and filled the city treasury, 
and even has caused us to turn our backs on our best 
friends. Rum will cause one to act shamefully upon the - 
public highway and bring discredit upon their good name 
which will last all through life. Whiskey has brought 
some of our noblest sons and daughters to everlasting^ 
shame and disgrace. 


30 


There are men and women today in the penitentiary 
caused by the influence of whiskey, and it will carry you, 
too, if you do not let it alone. How can you have the heart 
to buy whiskey when your wife is sick and needs the care 
of a ph 3 ^siciaii? Your children need clothes and shoes and 
.you yourself are poorl}^ clad and living in a rented house 
in tlie cit.y—no home of your own, no cow, no horse, 
neither a decent bed in the house, very little food for jmur 
famil3\ 

Oh, man, what can 3/^011 promise 3 murself ? Only a short 
life, and after death a devil’s hell will be 3 ^our everlasting 
portion. Working a share crop and stealing everything 
that 3 '"ou can get your hands on from the Negroes that are 
trying to have something, and selling in order to buy 
v.diiskey. Oh, Avhat a pity that such a man Avas ever in the 
AAmrld! 

Hoaa^ are 3 mu spending 3 ^our life before your sons and 
daughters? Are you for Christ? If so, be a hero, never 
surrender to the AAWong, but die first. 

Oh, preacher, aauII 3^11 be for temperance? Ask rum. 
lias he ever educa' ed a m.an to go as a missionary to any 
of tlie foreign lands to tell the story of a risen SaAuor? 
He Avould sav at once that that Avas out of his line of 

t-' 

business. 

Were you to ask Avhiske3" if he CA^er built a church for 
'God, he Avould ansAver no, I am a Avorker for the devil. I 
AAull come into A^our church and make a disturbance, and 
take 3mur deacons, steAvards, class leaders, trustees, elders 
or eAmn Amur preacher, and make they lay in the hog Aval- 
loAA^s of the streets of the city. 

. Not only that, I Avill bring doAAui princes and kings. I 
am poAverful AA^hen I get my influence over you. Oh, 
AA^hiskey. who are 3mu? I am a co-worker with the devil, 
create robbers, gamblers, thieves and murderers. 

Noav m3^ brethren, I have told you a few things about 
whiskey. I have tried to interest you upon that subject, 
on account of the poAver which has damaged this section 


31 


of the country and has brought shame and disgrace upon a 
civilized community, that is just five miles from here. 
Even the white people have not been able to have preach- 
.ing in fifteen or twenty years at night. The cause of 
which was whiskey. What a pity. Never heard of such 
a shame in any community for men to allow such a thing 
to be done. You need not ask me why is it that it seems 
that the time has come when we cannot raise a good boy 
or a girl. 

Think of your past life. They are just as you are, only 
a little improvement as the world grows wiser. You must 
be men and women in deeds of valor, in order to grow 
a boy or a girl that will be able to stand the temptations 
of this Vvmrld. 

Don’t steal, but be honest; dont lie, be truthful; don’t 
drink, be temperate, and the world will miss you when 
you are gone. Be a hero for Christ. God bless you all. 
Amen. 

Rev. Hasda—Doctor Lester will lecture here again on 
tomorrow. 


CHAPTERS XII. 

Now, my lecture is over. (Cheers from all parts of the 
ohurch, from both saints and sinners). 

‘‘Doctor, you come and go home with me.” 

“Thanks to all for your invitations, though if anyone 
wishes to see me, you can find me at Brother and Sister 
Rogers’.” 

The congregation is now dismissed. 

So off to the home of my newly-made friends. There I 
was made welcomed and honored as a King. Mr. R. be¬ 
ing a Mason and a AYoodman, Brother R., I said to him, 

“Do you know there met me on the church ground to¬ 
day a boy who told me in his way that the white people of 
this vicinity were getting up a mob to hang me.” 

“Doctor, do you mean that he said to hang you. Why, 
I don’t believe it, although a few years ago a Negro got 


32 


mad with one and had the white people to kill several Ne¬ 
groes before they found out that the Negro had lied on his 
race. What is there to kill you for?” 

“Something that I am teaching my people.” 

‘ ‘ Where did you do this talk at ? ” 

“At Rock Port.” 

My brother said, “Brother, I don’t believe there is a 
man on earth that would hurt a man like you. 

“Brother R., I am going to put my trust in God and I am 
going to stay here and do my best for these people. The 
world must feel me, as well as hear me, for I intend to live 
for Christ’s kingdom sake.” 

“My brother, if you are rooted and grounded in Jesus 
you are safe.” 

“Pocahontas, a wild Indian, saved Capt. John Smith’s 

life, and she was only a girl. So I am going to Jesus, who 

0 

has the reins of death and the keys of the bottomless pit in 
His hands. Oh, blessed Jesus, so this may be true. I am 
going to my Lord with it. He is able to save. The Lord 
saved Daniel, the three Hebrew children, John on the Isle 
of Patmos, and I know that He can save a black man, 
though they tell me I am in hell. I will trust Him who 

snatched a man from the belly of hell. To bed to rest 
from my labor. Goodnight.” 

CHAPTER XHI. 

“Good morning. Brother Lester. A fine and glorious 
norning. How are you this morning, my friend and broth¬ 
el?” 

“Yv^hy, Brother Rogers, I never rested better in all my 
life, knowing that I was in a Christian home and being pro¬ 
tected by the angels of the Lord.” 

“Doctor, your lecture was on my mind all the night—that 


33 


advice which you gave to our people admonishing them 
to be true men and women. I will try each day of my life 
to get closer to the Lord. You have certainly stirred me 
from the depth of my heart. I trust that all men and 
women have felt that it is time to stop talking but do 
something for fallen humanity. 

‘'We want to let the white people of the South see and 
feel that there is a reality in the black man’s religion. 
The only thing that you can exercise in this land is your 
religious gift. So let us praise God everywhere and any¬ 
where and before anybody. By so doing the world will 
see whose side that we are on. 

“Let us stand up for Christ and the upbuilding of His 
kingdom until death. My brother, I never surrendered to 
Satan nor his imps. ’ ’ 

“Doctor, I am with you.” 

“Brother Rogers, invite others to Christ by the way 
you live.” 

One of my white friends said to me: “Doctor, I heard 
you at Rock Point, two of the greatest lectures that I ever 
heard from any man. I hold diplomas from two of the 
leading schools of the East, and I know when a man is 
saying something. Thank you, kind sir, for your honored 
compliments. I have noticed you every time I lectured in 
this vicinity you were there. Yes, I love a true man, re^ 
gardless to color, a man that can do the people good. 

“You are worth more than every preacher in this coun¬ 
try to these people.” 

‘ ‘ Maybe that your words are too strong, Mr. H. ’ ’ 

“Well, I mean just what I say.” 

“Well, I hope that I can do something to better the way 
of living among my people of America, of the world, I 
mean, Mr. H., all of the people.” 


34 


‘‘Now, Doctor, I want to say to yon, two Negroes have 

told the white people that yon are here in this conntry 

teaching the colored people to rise up against the white 
p ople and kill them, so I have been told. I don’t know 
whether it is true or not, but I will find out today and will 
tell yon all about it.” 

“Thank yon, kind sir,” I replied. 

I can’t believe that the white people could believe such, 
for yon know that every time I lectured I have nearly as 
many whites as colored. I am a man for God, and if a 
man is leaning that way we are together; if not, why, he 
is not my man. I am only trying to save my people, and 
make them better for the world’s sake. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

So I am going right out to work for God. If I am 
lynched I will report to God. Why? 

The words of a strange white man; 

“Say, Doctor, did you know that the white people are 
getting up a mob to hang yon today? A black man told 
me just as I was leaving Mr. H.’s.” 

“No, I did not know it.” 

“Well, now, listen: They had a meeting on the matter 
yesterday at the white church, and that large crowd of 
white men that went out there were the missionaries to 
see if you got here on yesterday. So I don’t know what 
they are going to do. But they have sworn to hang you.” 

“ Well, my brother, white men killed Christ because He 
was for the right. How could I escape? Thank you, I 
must lecture there once more before I die, if Jesus says 
so.” 

And to the church I went, not believing a word that I 
had heard. 

I was introduced to the congregation. I met them with 
a smile as usual and the past had gone from me like a 
shadow. 

]My dear congregation, it affords me no small degree of 


35 


pleasure to have the honor to try in niy weak way to 
convey to yon an intelligent message this morning with 
so many visitors of a race that is now the fathers of the 
civilization of this, the Western Continent. 


When this country v'as wrapped and bound in ignor¬ 
ance o\eT all of this whole earth 1 saw the white man in 
my imagination land at Jamestown, Ya., in 16^7, and be¬ 
gan to fight the wilds of ignorance vrith inteljigence, and 
the strength of Ajax. And the same is a hard fight to this 
day. So toda}", while the white man forgets the Indian 
wrapped in all of his sneaking ways, but while he is try¬ 
ing to eonquGT the Indian I heard the whistle or the noise 
of the bell on the ship in the year 1619 that had just 
sailed from Africa, the old bell in her voice, or way, was 
saying, ‘'Slaves, slaves, slaves,” as she came into port. 

There the black man saw or had for the first time in life 
a chance to prove his generous tact and gift from God to 
the American fathers. The Negro in a short while showed 
to the white man that lie meant to be true and loyal to 
every trust, and from his gentle way he made such an 
impression upon the white race that they began to see 
that it v’as wrong to enslave the Negro; and they soon 
began to give the Negro his rights and freedom. 

Mr. George AYashington, the first President of the 
United States, saw that the Negro was such a hero on the 
d 3 atLlefields of the Revolutionary war that he freed his 
slaves, and others of the North did the same. Finally the 
spirit of the East and the North soon spread over the 
country, and being so between the white brothers, that 
they in the South found the Negro the greatest advantage 
on the plantations of all improvements on God’s earth. 

So the wliite man of the South decided that was what 
the black brother was made for. First, because it takes 
sunshine for cotton; second, it takes outdoor exercise for 
the black man, then the white man has declared that to 
put a Avhite cotton suit of clothes on a Negro in the fall 

of the year, put liim in a white cotton field and let the 


36 


cotton be opened from top to bottom, and this Negro there 
laboring and toiling for himself and the good white man. 

He makes the painted picture of such a nature that can 
be esteemed by any Southerner or any citizen of America. 
Why? First, because the Negro is prepared with brain 
and muscles to fill any vocation of life. Oh, what a being! 

So I shall say to the colored people today in the pres¬ 
ence of the white brother of the South: In the beginning 
God made Adam and finally made Eve from these two—■ 
one man and woman—all races sprang, if the Bible be 
true, which I believe. Do you? 

“Yes, yes,” was the answer. 

Now, my black brother, for two hundred years or more 
you made the living for the able white brother, so you 
were black, slick and greasy then, so you have got to con¬ 
tinue so, if you stay anywhei'e on earth, where he can even 
hear of you. (Laughter and applause). 

Today every Negro in America is willing, if he has the 
right mind, to thank the Lord for his coming to this coun¬ 
try, although he has served as a slave, which was a dis¬ 
grace to civilization. But he must now acknowledge to 
the truth that all of his worth as a citizen and knoAvledge 

of God, and his first lesson was from the white man. 

But today the Negro can say though you have deprived 
me of the ballot which rules the government of the South, 
but I am glad to know that my race or the Negro man was 
once in the U. S. Senate, Lieutenant Governor of Missis¬ 
sippi, and was Registrar of the U. b. Treasur}^ So you 
took the ballot box and carried it away and told the Negro 
that you would exchange your land, money, fine churches, 
high schools, and other comforts of life and a good name, 

for the ballot box exchange. 

Sir, the Negroes of Mississippi took the white man’s 
money and opened twenty banks, built a town, oil mill, 
fine gins of modern style, comfortable homes out of log 


37 


•cabins to stone building, have thousands of acres of land 
and money to buy more. Fifty years of freedom to the 
Negro has made a wonderful improvement upon his wel¬ 
fare and intelligence that he would never have gained 
elsewhere but in the South, the garden spot of the world. 

AVe have had a steady eye upon you (the white) as a 
living model for others to work by. 

Now, to the Vvdiite brothers of the South, we thank you 
for your clothing us when we were naked; feeding us 
when we were hungry; and giving us shelter when we had 
no homes. God bless the Southern white man that has 
b en our friend. Brothers, stand by him and for his pro¬ 
tection, for all this is his. The Southern white man prom¬ 
ised the Negro an honest deal, which some give. Again, I 
say to the white man, that the, Negroes thank you, in 
which you have sold us our homes, giving time and a lib¬ 
eral interest on borrowed money. AV'e thank you for help¬ 
ing us on our churches with your thousands of dollars; 
we are able to put on these tall steeples, that point to man, 
telling him that the only safe way is to go up, up. 

Again, we thank God for such men as those who never 
.say a good word for the Negroes, though his cook, nurse, 
coachman, and those around him are Negroes. His dirty 
clothes washed by a Negress, and his living is made 
by the muscles of a Negro. So I say to the Negroes of the 
world, God said to love one another regardless of the un¬ 
just laws and the fines that the courts impose upon you 
and our race for nothing in matters or cases that are friv¬ 
olous. Pay your fines, work out the days and love the 
white man just the same for God v 111 sooner or later right 
everything. 

Dear white friends, the uld Negro obeyed his master be¬ 
cause he freed him, and he was the law, though today the 
young Negro obeys in honor of all the good things you 
have done for his race. Then we ask for the protection of 
the law in the right and of the white people of this great 
country. 


38 


I am in favor of you good white people having all the- 
Negro servants that you need, but I am frank in my con- 
\ictions if you were not a good man to me, you could not 
go!: my services nor support. I would be afraid of you,, 
and I would stay as far from you as I could. A great many 
colored people Avant to go North, some out West, some to 
Heaven, and a few mean ones soon go to hades and there 
to be with the devil and all other mean individuals Avho 
Avent to impose upon the helpless. I say this because it is 
right. There are only tAvo sides to any question, and that 
is the right side and the AAWong side, the good and the bad. 

To my colored friends I Avould say that the North is a 
fine country, the AVest is a fine country, but the South is. 
(he finest of all. This is the place for everybody that 
Avaiits to prosper and do well. God is everyAvhere, and He 
has promised to be your protector if you are right Avith 
Him. Is your heart right Avitii God? If so, no mob, no 
storm, no fire, no Avild beasts, no serpents, no man, can 
hurt you. Stay AAdiere you are, rent the land, buy the 
homestead, work on the hah^es oi' for Avages, but the thing 
in this life is to see that jmur heart is right Avith God. 

Pray for your enemies and \oYe them, stick to the man 
Avho is your friend in the time of need. AA^ho fed you 
when hungry, clothed you Avhen clothless, gave you a home 
Vvdien homeless? The Southern Avhite man. Pernember 
this, and tell him and mean it. The farmer may come, but 
I am at home to stay. Stop sending your money out AVest 
to buy land Avhen there are millions of acres of land here 
at home that you can buy just as cheap and you don’t own 
a foot af it. Shame on you. 

AAHy don’t you poor Negroes learn to stay in the coun¬ 
try and raise your children right, instead of moving into 
tiie dirty and filthy places of our toAvns and cities, AAdiere 
your children haAm the toughest of the tough loAver class 
of (he degraded set Avith AAdiom to associate? I Avant to 
kiioAv if you can raise anything besides thieves, murderers, 
drunkards and prostitutes surrounded Avith such a class 
for your belovmd ones to associate. 

AVhen wg Avere all in the country Ave raised such mmi as 


39 


T. T. Montgomery, John R. Lynch, E. AV. Lampton, E. L. 
Lackey, E. E. Pettebone, H. R. Revels, and a thousand of 
others. AVhy not stay where you can make a living and 
learn your children to work in the place of loafing? Do 
you know that on one acre of land near Gulfport, Miss., a 
man made nine hundred dollars in one year truck farm- 
ing? You can make more than that, because this was a 
white man. You know how a Negro can work. 

Stay in the country, surround your home with such en¬ 
joyments that will make your children happy. Fix up the 
fences, renew the outhouses, whitewash or paint your 
home, feed and water your stock, in order that they may 
look like a big Negro’s property, then buy an instrument 
of some kind for the home, and have your children learn 
to play and to sing, for there is no place like svveet home. 
Yes, home, sweet home. 

By this you Avill learn to be kind and sweet to your fam¬ 
ily and your children will love home. How can you leave 
these beautiful churches and cemeteries that are filled 
with your loved ones that once spent many a happj^ day 
with you and these pretty homes and friends to go to a 
f«r coun+rv and among strangers to spend the remainder 
of your life in misery and grief to see them behind you? 

You are forever thinking of home, the devil is every- 
v.diere, but you must see to it that your heart is right with 
God ; if so, stand your ground and fear no evil, for God 
will make your enemies your friends, and your hindrances 
yon,r stepping stones to success and glory. 

Nov.g dear people, love one another, stand up, dear 
friends, for the right and die before vou will surrender to 
the wrong. T pray that all confusion of this country will 
end from this time on and that all hearts will be filled 
v:ith love and sweet peace abide with us all nov/ and for¬ 
ever, is the earnest prayer of thy servant. Amen. (Cheers 
and a general hand-shaking from the whites and high com¬ 
pliments). 

At 3 o’clock p m. T was called upon at once by Rev. H., 
the pastor, in a frightful manner. 


40 


“Oh, Doctor,” he said, “there is something wrong here. 
There are four or five hundred white men with guns and 
ropes out here in order to adjust a matter with you. 0, 
brother, what are you going to do about it?” 

“Why, my dear preacher, there is only one thing to do 
about it, and that is to put my trust in God. Wait one 
moment. I will see a white friend of mine.” 

“Do you know any of these men?” 

“No, but I belong to God, and He will make a friend for 
me.” I turned from him. 

I looked and saw a crowd of white men standing near 
me, and I said to two of them: ‘ ^ Gentlemen, let me speak 
to you,” and they consented. AVe walked off. I said to 
them; “ I am a stranger here, but I am not a stranger to a 
good many of your race. I have many men of your race 
who are my friends. ’ ’ 

“AVho are they?” 

“Dr. B. F. AVard, W. B. Kelly, Ed Loggins, C. H. and H. 
Aldridge, AV. S. AVebster, banker; J. B. Small, banker; W. 
L. Huntley, marshal; J. K. Vardanian, and ten thousands 
of others in Mississippi. 

“These men, gentlemen, you can phone and see and 
find out as to who I am. What is the trouble?” 

“AVell, said that good man, Mr. Hayes, whom I will al¬ 
ways love, “I don’t know you, but I believe that you are 
all right. There has been a Negro boy, who lives with Mr. 
Love he heard you lecture and professed religion, joined 
the church and came straight home, and his conversion 
was a lie, I believe. 

“He said that you had a meeting while at Bock Point 
and was teaching the Negroes down there to rise up 
against the white people, kill all of their men and take 
their wives. ’ ’ 

“To whom did he say that I told that to, gentlemen?” 

“He said that he saw you and a real black Negro stand¬ 
ing out in front of the church and that he heard you tell 
this Negro these Avords.” 

“Now, gentlemen, I must say that I never heard of 


41 


sSuni^ ireora 0S0q:^ i[i3 piie siqSi']. piipq SuT:^qgij ‘j 0 an^o 0 ^ 
u^Ti^sijqQ "B titB j - 0 ^;^ Am jo pB Lii 0 aoj 0 q Suu{; b qons 
that my people are supporting. I have some of my lec¬ 
tures which you can read for your own benefit, and there 
you will know what kind of stuff that I am teaching my 
people.” 

“Bring me one.” 

So I did. 

“AVait one moment. Oh, I guess that you promised to 
be with me in the time of trouble. I pray for that time 
to come even to my rescue this very moment.” 

I went to my wagon where my suit case was and took 
from it two of my books which contained my lectures and 
handed them to two of the men. 

“Now, gentlemen, if any one wants to know any more, 

tell them that I would gladly answer them at this mo¬ 
ment.” 

I heard some one say, “Good evening.” 

I answered and turned around and said, “Good eve¬ 
ning,” and the next moment a revolver, a 38 or 44-special 

Avas thrown into my face. Death semingly to be at this 
moment, a voice^—“consider yourself under arrest.” 

“All right, sir,” was my reply.” 

“What have you got?” 

“Nothing, sir, but an honest name,” was my ansAver.” 

“AVell, search him, Mr. Loyd.” So he did. 

“For AA^hat, gentlemen?” 

“For your advice to the negroes.” 

“All right, sir, I am ready to go if that is my lot. I 
had better carry my suit case, so should I never get 
back, they Avill not have anything of mine.” So AA^e Avent 
through the great croAvd of people and my audience dur¬ 
ing the morning service of my lecture. 

Many had become devoted to me and I could see sorrow 


42 


on their brows and tears began to fall from their eyes 
and as I walked aw^ay, I said, “The world once had Paul, 
Silas, John, Peter and our Blessed Savior Jesus Christ. 
This was all the consolation I had, saying if there is no 
cross there is no crown.” 

AYhen we had got out of sight of the congregation, I 
said: “Oh, Lord, 1 trust my life in your hands. Save 
me if such be thy holy will.” 

I did not know here I was going. All of the consolation 

that I had was Mr. H-, who said, just as the man 

said, “Good evening,” and arrested me. 

“The mob is on,” is all that I could say. “I don’t 
knovr what the end will be.” 

I looked down the road and saw tvro hundred men with 
guns vraiting for the black coon. I v;alked up to the 
crowd, stopped and sat my suit case down. I was too 
hot to be afraid. 

“Good evening, gentlemen.” 

Then answered, “Good evening. Quite a good number. 

‘This is nothing; the men that are going to hang you are 
in the bottom. This is only a few,” and I found it true. 

The blood-thirsty mob, I mean as they had been recom¬ 
mended to me. One said, “I am going to have that ring.” 
Another said, “I am going to have that watch;” another, 
the chain; another the scarf pin; another said, ‘ ‘ I am 
going to have that hand, toe,” and so on. 

I said, “Gentlemen, just before I die I want to make a 
will, as I am not broke and you all want a remembrance 
of a hero, and as I am at the mercy of an angry mob. it 
is for good only that I make this request. I will give 
these things to those w^ho want them. 

“Good evening, gentlemen, quite a crowd indeed. I 
never saw so many men with arms before in all of my 
life, and all of these are for the life of one helpless, poor, 
humble Christian gentleman, who is helpless and has no 



43 


filends but Jesus. So, my kind friends, I congratulate 
you foi youi kindness tlius far. No one lias been haughty 
or mistreated me. Now, gentlemen, I hope to have the 
privilege of speaking to you in my own way and declare 
tne truth and the truth only, as this is the day for me to 
be hung, as I now see the rope on that horse’s saddle, 
that it is sir, only a few things to ask of you. First, I 
consider that I am a man; second; that 1 am a human 
being and have feelings and a soul to be saved as well 
as you. Then remember what you “sow, you shall also 
reap,” not only that, but more. 


“My life is now in your hands, and v'ou can do just 
what you wish, but if you kill me this evening, some day 

you will have to appear before a living God, and your 
hands will be stained with an innocent man’s blood, and 
God says, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ I am here even without 
a knife or a pm with which to scratch you. 


“I am tryingJo^ teach my people to do God’s bidding, 
and I am not giving the white man a thought, believing 
them to know what is right and would act accordingly. 

1 am here today with a clean heart, not taught against 
any living being on earth. 

“Wait. Don’t you know that you told a negro that 
you had things fixed to kill the white men”^ Mister, wait. 

Allow me to say this: What could the Negro do if it was 
not for the white man? Where does the negro get his 
food and clothing? Year in and year out he looks to you, 
for he never has aii}^ money very long at a time. But he 
always has a friend from whom he can get what he needs, 
and that is the white man. Do you think that he would 
be foolish enough to fill his own well when the water is 
good? Why, gentlemen, I never had such an idea in all 
of my life. Never heard of such a thing before. I am 
frank in saying to you that if any man or woman would 
come to me with any such stuff you would never have 


44 


the time to call seventy-five men together on a Sunday 

and hear the statement of a dirty, thieving, good-for- 
nothing scoundrel, everything but clean and truthful. He 
is a dirty negro buzzard. Who would tell a story like that. 
That man ought to be killed, and I would do that my¬ 
self in the defense of saving many other negroes’ lives. 
What could the negroes do with the white men? Haven’t 
you got everything in your possession? The men who 
don’t mind killing a fellow, at any time of the day or 
night, so what is there for the negro but death should he 
start anything? 

‘‘Kind sirs, agree with me and let all voices go up in 
one accord, saying, loose him and let him go; which I 
will declare to you that I am only for the right. A voice, 
‘What did you tell them to do for one another?’ I told 
the negroes to learn to love one another and to be true 
to their trust and stop lying on one another because one 
had a little more wealth or brains or stood better in the 
community or seems to raise a more respectable family 
than vours. 

Then set in to have him killed or run out of the coun¬ 
try by telling lies on him to the white people, then you 
may move.on the plantation owned by a Negro and you 
. go there to close him out; he will not half work, they want 
to go to town every day in the week and buy for the 
whole family like a millionaire; they want to eat equal 
to the landlord, then ride off to see the sick nearly every 
night, except when you are and can’t ride, then they will 
have and must have the sisters to come. 

When Christmas comes and you haven’t got anything, 
done spent all of your money and what you made, you 
will sw ear a nd tell some white man that I am done with 

the Negro, I worked hard this year with old Ike, and he 
brought me out in debt. 

“How many men in your family. Bill?” 

“Only ten of us, outside of me and the old lady and 
grand-dad.” 


45 


‘‘IIow much cotton did you make—fifteen or twenty 
bales of cotton?” 

^‘No, sir. I made four bales of cotton, three loads of 
coin.” 

“AVhat was the matter? The man you were living with 
made twenty-one bales of cotton and plenty of corn.” 

“Yes, sir, but that Negro works night and day.” 

“I Avant to say this to you, old darkey—everything on 
my plantation gets the gun.” 

“Boss, I can get it, too.”' 

Noav, my friends, Ave must quit this and be men. When¬ 
ever Ave see a Negro trying to do something in the finan¬ 
cial Avorld, let us all go behind him and push witn all our 
forces, just as the Avhite man does his race. 

Try to make him a millionaire if you can, then live a 
clean life before your children, and then some day your 
son or daughter may marry in this man’s family and then 
you Avill be a rich Negro, too, and another big Negro. See 
hoAv easy it is to help one another. 

All we have to do is to stick together and be honest, 
and Ave Avill have lots of money, men in our oAvn race. 
Don’t try to tear each other down, but build each other 
up is the thing to do Then when you have a moment to 
spare think of the old standard bearer that stood by you 
when you Avere Avithout food, or shelter. Who was he? 
The white man. 

Never forget him, love him, honor him, Avith true polite¬ 
ness. If he don’t use his, you use yours. He Avill soon de¬ 
cide that he can’t afford for the Negro to have more man¬ 
ners and politeness than himself, and the next time that 
you meet him he Avill speak Then, again, I told the col¬ 
ored to stand to the Avhite man that stood by him in the 
time of peril and sore danger. 

“Noav, gentlemen, that is what I said as near as I can 
remember, and noAv my life is in your hands. It is up to 
you as to Avh ether I live or die, yet there is one more thing 


46 


that Task of yon—it is to put yourself in my place, teach¬ 
ing your people to do all the good that they can to all 
men, stand up for the right, and never at any time sur¬ 
render to the wrong, but die first. Then think, a dirty 
man of your race would be so bitterly against the right, 
that he would try to get you killed by lieing on ^ou, then 
after you do, those as a Christian gentleman, then if you 
would desire death to be the penalty for trying to make 
your people honest, truthful and loyal citizens, why, I say 
hang me by that rope today. 

^'Though if you think that you ought to live on to con¬ 
tinue to teach the right, why, your life will be a wreck 
and your farms will be barren. Sickness will be in your 
families, disgrace will enter the homes, shame will be the 
lot of your children, and your hearts will be made to bleed 
as my mother’s will when she hears of my going to glory 
from the hands of a heartless mob. 

“God has promised to let you receive what you give. 
How can you as spotless Anglo-Saxons have the heart to 
take the life of a poor innocent man who is only for the 
right, ’ ’ 

There was a doctor from Mississippi. God bless that 
man, for he wiped his hands and walked away. Many 
followed him, but it did no good. 

“My hands will never be stained with that man’s blood. 
Mr. H. said he told you all that he was all right.” 

Then another good man said: “I told you all that he 
Avas a man of note. I heard him lecture at P. R. each 
time he was there.” 

Up jumped a little Negro-hater and clreAv his gun on 
me in the shape of a club. “I Avill knock your brains 
out,” he said I asked him what I hade dont to him. 

“You threAV your hands close to my face.” 

“Pardon me, mister. Why, I wouldn’t mistreat you 
and any other man that Avas helpless for nothing in the 
A\mrld, though I Avould do all I could to see that he got 


47 


jusLice. Ihen a voice comes from the crowd savin"' 

Put down that gun and get away from so close to him^ 
then he will not hit yon.” 

Thank yon, my kind sir,” was 1113 ^ answer. 

The justice of the peace comes, and he is all right. No 
fault can be found of him. 

‘^\Yhere are the brother Masons, AA^oodmen and Pvth- 
iaiis? A"on had better get np here aronnd ^mnr brothers.” 

Some one asked’ ‘‘Are yon a Alason?” 

“Y'es, sir, indeed I am.” 

At this moment some one asked, “Can yon climb one 
of those trees ont there?” 

Aly reply was, “I used to be an expert climber, when a 
boy, and I think really that I conld climb now if in case 
of necessity.” 

“This is business and not foolishness,” was the voice 
of some one. “He is a worthv and brave man and he mnst 
be treated right.” 

“Thank yon, sir. Alay yon live long and have all of the 
comforts of life.” 

A voice said: ‘‘I wish that half of this large crowd of 
500 men were half as good as ^mn are. Now, yon are a 
free man and have the friendship of these men who have 
come here to take yonr life. Yon have changed their 
minds and have made them vonr friends. God mnst be 
Avith .yon. The only request that we ask of ^on is that Ave 
Ava,nt to lecture for the good of this country, iioav and at 
an}" other time that yon ma}" see fit. A"on are Avelcome, 
and have all these men’s protection So, Doctor, feel safe, 
for Ave all are Avith jmn. and Ave are going to giA"e that 
Negro a lesson AAdiich Avill last him the balance of his lifo. 
AA"e are going to pnt a stop to the Negroes lieing on each 
other and cansing trouble in onr country. The Negroes 
lied on each other and caused three or four men to be 
killed a feAv miles from here seA^eral years ago. So Ave 
are going to pnt a stop to these minors before the}" de- 


48 


velop some serious trouble. Will you lecture to us before 

vou go?” 

‘^Iwill.” 

A voice was heard in the crowd to say. ‘‘Give lieing Ne¬ 
groes h—.” 

“J will do all that I can for that class.” 

“Now, we are going to show you that we are not as 
mean to you as you thought. We are going to carry you 
back to the church and to your people (three or four on 
each side a great number behind me). So they delivered 
me to the church, saying, “He is all right, and has proven 
himself to be a great Christian worker.” 

“He has made friends with us all,” said one voice. 

“Indeed, he is the greatest Negro living,” said another. 

“Look for us on tomorrow.” 

“Thank you, gentlemen, thank you, a thousand times 1 
thank you.” 

I pray God’s blessings upon all of you. Amen. 

A mob found me on August the 23rd at God’s Church, 
where I had gone to lecture in the defense of right. The 
church was well filled to its utmost and around the 
church for quite a distance were vehicles, wagons and ox¬ 
carts, the conveyances of the people who had come to 
hear the man lecture that was to have been mobbed ves- 
terday. Everywhere I looked I could see people of every 
description, color and age. 

I was introduced by the pastor. Dr. H., a kind and 
Christian gentleman and one of the best prepared minis¬ 
ters of Mississippi. He is loving, kind and true to all, 
and believes in the advice of the Scripture, to be careful 
as to how you treat a stranger. The doctor will not turn 
you aAvay, but Avill certainly give you a chance. I hope 
to see Brother H. some day to be knoAAui in all of the lands 
as a model Christian gentleman, for the narroAv-minded, 
begrudging Negro leaders to use in shaping their lives 
before the races that are noAv Ihdng and for those that are 
to folloAv. 

The Doctor has plenty Avealth, but not like you, high- 


49 


minded, but humble, that is to be a leader. Yon can’t 
drive people to be kind and expect for them to follow yon 
to Jesus. I hope to see this man some day in some high- 
honored office, helping the world as Drs. Boyd, Penn and 
others who are competent for leadership. You will make 
no mistake in trying them, for they are among the good. 
That is what we need—men. 


MY TALK NEXT DAY TO MY MOB AND FRIENDS. 

Dear church and congregation, this is like the dedica¬ 
tion of the Washington monument on Bunker Hill. Never 
saw so many people in the country before in my life, a 
thousand (seemingly) voices. Neither have I thought as 
Dr. Hard}^ has said, I am the black man that is to enter¬ 
tain you at this hour. I have never had such experience 
in all of my life as I have had since being in South Mis¬ 
sissippi, but I am going to try and instruct you for a short 
while. 

I have had a pleasant trip and visit in your homes, but 
there is one place Avhich I Ausited, AAuth its surroundings, 
1 did not enjoy, though it is only a lesson for me. The 
tbeme of my discourse Avill be: ‘Ms Your Heart Right 
With God?” To haA^e your heart right AAutli God is. first: 
You haA^e got to be and proA^e yourself a man by loving 
one another Avith that brotherly love and affection of a 
man, then you are Avilling to stand up for the right and 
you Avill not surrender to AAWong, on any grounds; but you 
Avould have all men to knoAA^ that they are Avhen you liaA^e 
the chance to let them knoAV AAdiat side you are on. Is 
Amur heart right? HaAm Amu a clean heart? One that 
makes you honest, not steal that Avhich belongs to your 
felloAvman, but that AA^hich is trulv Amurs. Is that the 
kind of a heart you haAm? 

A heart that Avill make you love and pray even for your 

enemies and Ausit him in time of trouble. Have the heart 
that AAull make you tell the truth and not lie on your 
neighbors, your strongest friends nor enemies. Hoav is 
your heart AAuth God? IlaAm you that heart that aauII en- 


50 


able you not to carry pistols, knucks, razors and other 
Aveapons with Avhich to fight in a Christian and a civilized, 
Avell-protected country by the good lawmakers of Mis¬ 
sissippi. 

Have you the heart that Avill make virtue, temperance, 
truthfulness and honesty and a good name aboA^e all 
names? Oh, my good people, hoAV are your hearts with 
God ? Are your hearts of such a nature that you are tvill- 
ing to do unto others as you tvould have them do unto 
you? Do you love the words of the Scripture, tvhere it 
says that you shall reap Avhat you soav? AVe ought to be 
very particular hotv tve live and how tve treat people. 
You may rob me of my good name, Avhich tvill cause my 
heart to bleed, but it will come back on you some day. 

I was happily received by the congregation which I left 
heart-broken, brothers and sisters, to see one of the mem¬ 
bers of their race led atvay, from his beloved, to be among 
enemies and hurried to his end by a mob, thirsty for a 
Negro’s blood, to be swallowed up by the earth. Oh, my 
friends, have you ever been led aAvay by a mob ? Telling 
you every step that your life is over, and that you can’t 
escape and that you must die? 

Then all among strangers, too, though if Amu are for 
Christ, He aauII be Avith you as He Avas Avith me. Don’t put 
confidence in man. but put your trust in God and He Avill 
save you. God Avill not let your enemies touch you. AYhen 
you are lied upon by a heartless, dirty, begrudging and 
hell-deserving Negro, an ape in principle, the meeting Avas 
stopped that evening and all Avalked, Avatched and prayed, 
that my life might be spared. Tavo or three hundred 
prayers Avent up to glory, asking God in a feAV moments to 
save me. So His Son, Jesus Christ, came to my rescue at 
once, and brought a legion of angels to fight my battles. 
So be true, and God Aviil protect you if you aauII only be 
Avorthy. Dear brethren and sisters, I am here once again. 

‘‘Oh, my God, my God,” cried a number of voices, “hoAV 
did you escape? kly Jesus AAms there. I shall never for¬ 
get this time, day, place and these men, aaJio had nlanned 


51 


* 


to kill me, and Jesns sent His army in order that I might 
not get hurt, thou«gh I have made friends in this part 
the land. 

On tomorrow let us have a glorious day, ‘‘sing and shout 
praises to God from who all blessings flow.” Here are 
Brother and Sister Rodgers, who are waiting for me. I 
am to go to their home. 

“Oh, Doctor, were you afraid?” 

“No time to be afraid, that was a business time.” 

“Why, I would have died had it been me,” some said. 

And you will be only reaping what you have sown. 
Then, again, my dear white friends, though my people lied 
on me in order to get me killed, just because I told them 
the truth, and how can we lie and expect to see God’s face 
in peace? 

Gentlemen, I do not want the Negro killed, but I do be¬ 
lieve that a light brushing might do them good, and I say 
to you as I am a Negro and know a great deal about my 
race. Now, do not misquote me, what I said, thinking that 
I said that I know all about the Negro, for I do not, and 
no one else save God. And I expect that He is put at a 
test at times in order to see after the Negro and His 
angels. 

I want to warn you white people of the brutal-minded, 
hell-deserving Negro who is the one that hangs around 
your back door grinning, and every time that he gets a 
chance he has a great deal to tell you on some other Negro. 
Oh, white man, you who have stood by me in these ordeals, 
this is to your interest to get the secrets, which I am going 
to open to you, and you send the same to your friends to 
the end of the earth. 

Listen, the Negro that is always grinning and comes and 
tells you everything that happens to his people is no friend 
to you. He is only trying to get your confidence in order 
that he can get a chance to steal something, the Negro that 
you can hire to tell lies and bribe other Negroes that same 
Negro can be hired to burn your dwellings and barns. 

The Negro that can be persuaded to get our women and 
girls to come to your command, the same dirty rascal will 


52 


attempt assault upon your best women. The Negro that 
will come to you and tell you a lie, that I never thought or 
would allow any man to come o i any man in this world 
and take his life, or do him an injury at all, why, that 
Negro will try this when you are asleep. So you had bet¬ 
ter get rid of him if you have to do so even by foul means. 

These principles are laying mighty heavy upon his mind 

and he is a bad Negro and will not do. So you may look 
out for horses to be stolen and a great damage to be done 
by this class of Negroes. He has a heart to desire a white 
companion. I am almost in favor of killing him now, for 
I and all other true Negroes of the South love our own 
pretty yellow, brown, dark, black and chocolate-colored 
good women. 

God bless the words spoken. We are all pleased. God 
has blessed us and has given us all colors, just as Joseph’s 
coat was, and all kinds of hair and eyes. What more do 
we want? White? I would not be anything else but a 
black man as I am, for the Issue has done the Negro as 
much good as the good truthful writings of Dr. B. F. 
Ward when he began telling you of his experiences of 
over half a century with just such a class of no account 
Negroes. 

Some of you have read your own doings and have re¬ 
frained from them. God bless such men that are somet- 
thing to their race. Men like Moses and Lincoln, who were 
bent on doing something to better the Negro’s condition 
by reforming his social and religious propensities. Such 
men are not your enemies, though they never say anything 
good. Why, because you do so many bad ones. You don’t 
give them time. May both the Issue and Dr. Ward live 
and enjoy the blessings prepared for them even from the 
foundation of the world. 

To the white people I would say that the Southern Ne¬ 
gro only wants a fair and an honest treatment and we are 
willing to forever stay at home and let the north be the 
north, the west the west, but we will stay in the south, 
where we like the best. You know that we opened up this 
wilderness, builded these beautiful roads, streets and this 
beautiful mansion for your sons and daughters to enjoy. 


/ 


53 

There are nearly 2,000 convicts of my race that employs 
over 100 of your race to keep them steadily employed. A 
man in each county of his state has the oversight of^ the 
prisoners of my race that are habitual law-breakers, ihen 
my race works your streets, my race enjoys being your 
servants, they love to bring in the bales of cotton for you 
in the fall of the year. My race loves for you to be kind to 
him. My people want you to accept his friendship as a cit¬ 
izen and a humble servant of yours, and he wants you to 
prove that you are his friend by by the kindly and friendly 
way which you have treated him. 

As my time is out I shall only thank this great audience 
which I have spoken to for one and a half hours for your 
many praises and honored greetings. My last words are 
let each one see, if not so, that your heart is right with 
God. May you love one another, and the strong may not 
oppose the weak. God bless each of you collectively and 
individually. Amen. 

(Cheers, cheers, and a general hand-shaking.) 

My donation from this vicinity at large was over $400. 
Once my enemies, though now my friends. Pray that all 
men may obey the law and enforce the law. This gives 
to all men a fair and impartial trial by the law, then you 
are right. 


54 


\ 


A FEW MOMENT’S TALK TO WOMEN’S WORK— 
THE BEAUTIFUL WORKS OF GOD. 

God wants ns to be useful to Him, with onr invisible ina¬ 
bilities. Then it is said, ‘H will not write the law no more 
on tables of stone, but will Avrite it on your hearts and 
stamp it in your mind.” So we see that God has used the 
minds of men as mediums through Avhich to convey mes¬ 
sages or His Avill, by writing the messages on the heart, 
sealing and stamping it in the mind. The stamp is a right 
of authority, so anything that the mind brings to yon that 
hasn’t got God’s stamp upon it, yon may knoAv that it 
doesn’t belong to yon. Yes, yon may know it doesn’t be¬ 
long to yon, and if yon take it yon have no right to it, be¬ 
cause it was not accompanied by the stamp or spirit of 
God. Noav, brethren, God has ahvays used the heart and 
mind of men for His purpose, since the mind will go out 
beneath the silvery shines of the moon, and under the 
twinkling rays of the stars and in SAveet and golden 
shadoAv of the sun, and there take its seat under the neigh¬ 
boring hilltop and surround itself Avith objects of attrac¬ 
tion, visible and invisible, and launch out through the sky 
Avith all its beauty and hails at the beautiful gates of Zion, 
and meet the co-operation of a heavenly union and there 
commune Avith God, our Father, and God made knoAvn his 
Avill Avhich the mind, AAdien again reunited Avith the body 
was made knoAAui to the church. Therefore I claim that 
God made knoAvn His will to the church by inspiration. 
Avhich Avas conceived in the mind of the prophets, forever 
happy, in the full enjoyment of Christ. Oh, Blessed Lord, 
grant that in the great and dreadful day Avhen Christ 
shall come to judgment and Avhen Ave must all appear be¬ 
fore His tribunal gate, that Ave may be found at your right 
hand and hear Him say to us, '^Come, ye blessed of my. 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before 
the foundation of the Avorld. ’ ’ May God bless you. Amen. 

THE POWER OF KNOWING. 

Among the variety commodities Avhich attracts the at¬ 
tention of mankind there is one thing of more value than 


55 


all others—a principle which if once possessed would 
j^Teatb^ assist in obtaining all other things worth possess¬ 
ing, whether it was power, wealth, riches, honors, thrones 
or dominions. Comparatively only a few have ever pos- 
sesed it, although it was within reach of many others, but 
Mmv Avas not aware of it, or did not knoAv its vadue. It 
has Avorked Avonders for the feAV that haA^e possessed—• 
some it enabled to escape from droAAuiing, AAdiile every soul 
Avho did not possess it Acas lost in the mighty deep. Others 
it saved in famine, although thousands perished all around 
them. By it men liaAm been raised from poverty to the 
throne of empires. By the possession of it, it raised men 
from a dungeon to a palace. Those that possessed it Avere 
(leliAmred from the fire flames, Avhilst the Avhole city Avas 
burned, and every other soul perished but they that had 
in their possession the knoAving. 

‘‘Oh, horrors!” Avill you ask, “dVhat is it? What can 
that thing be? Inform me, and I will purchase it at the 
sacrifice of ail my earthly possessions.” 

The thing I am talking about is foreknowledge—a 
knoAAdedge of things to come. Shine on, wisdom and 
knoAvledge, as tlte light on a hill. 

We explore regions unknown to mankind; Ave gaze upon 
opening glories as they present themselves on every side, 
and feast ourselves with knoAvledge AAdiich is calculated in 
its matters to enlarge the heart, to exalt the mind above 
the little grovelling things of the Avorld, and to make one 
wise unto salvation. Let us ask Noah about foreknoAAd- 
edge (Gen., 6th chap., ITtii Averse); let’s talk with Lott 
(Gen., 19th chap., 12-13th verses) ; read about Joseph in 
the land of Egypt, telling Pharoah his dream, Joseph go¬ 
ing from the dungeon to the throne; Elijah’s talk with 
Ahab. 

There are others that I could have you to see Avhat they 
say about foreknowledge, but I knoAv this will convince 

von that all men haven’t the same knoAvledge, so believe 

^ «• 

these sayings, for they are true. God bless you all. 


56 


MY FIRST VISIT TO THE CAPITAL. 
My Experience in Great Mississippi. 


On a visit to the capital I witnessed the love and respect 
the people have for the leading Negroes as their friend. As 
I feel it it my duty I shall try and write, that one great 
man may live even in the minds of unborn generations, 
hoping to see the day when the world may be full of such 
noble and strong men only for the right and won’t bow to 

wrong. I found some of our strongest men of the race in 
the city in grief and sorrow over the death of a man that 
had stood in the defense of right to all, thinking who will 
be the next man thad Avill speak in the defense of justice 
without fear or trembling, to all men. He is here today—• 
President Wilson. 

This was in the month of May, the 13th or 14th. It was 
the senior bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
.South. His earthly home was Jackson, Miss. This great 
man has reached the end of the earth and gladdened the 
heavenly court by his presence. He was a friend to hu¬ 
manity. 

No man’s condition was so obscure or poor that he could 
not find a place in his heart for him. Many a heart was 
made glad by his presence and words of cheer. The lamp 
he kindled for his own way has given its flames to thous¬ 
ands of others. The words he spoke to and of me once in 
the presence of a score of strong-minded men linger with 
me today. The bishop asked: “Who will risk going to the 
hotel getting my grip for me ? ’ ’ Though the train was here 
I at once sprang to a trot, saying: “ I will go. ’ ’ Being only 
a boy, but loved great men and pleasant faces and kind 
words, and when I returned the train was leaving the sta¬ 
tion, the good man on board. So I boarded the train and 
hurried to him with his grip. He looked in my eyes and 
said: “ If you are not a white man, I never looked in the 
face of one, ’ ’ handing me a piece of money, which I kindly 


refused. Then I said: ‘‘Kind sir, it pays me well to have 
the honor to carry your grip.’’ He then smiled, handed me 
his hand and said : “God bless you.” And God heard and 
piswered that prayer. The words he spoke are still echo¬ 
ing in my life. 

Many times this brave to lead, heroic to suffer and en¬ 
dure. would reach to my people in their humble churches 
and thank him gladly. His influence was confined neither 
to his own race nor church, but he was known as a power 
for good in all churches and among all people. He was 
loved, honored and praised wherever he went, but this 
never moved him—his heart was always bigger than his 
head. 

His face is eternity and his residence creation. God lent 
this magnificent spirit to the earth, who was too noble and 
sublime of character to be flattered and too rich of soul to 
be purchased. His culture fitted him to minister to the 
most intellectual, while his practical skill in leadership 
made him bold enough to depart from traditions, when it 
seemed necessary, and to adopt means of effective value. 
He was a warrior who fought on the side of right and God. 

At times some of his friends parted with him on some of 
the unpopular issues—the saloon and the Negro problem— 
but he stood firm, an inveterate to the saloon, a life-long 
friend to the Negro’s cause, to education. He believed the 
Negro had a right to a fair chance; an even break; not fa¬ 
vor, but a chance. His advice at all times was to a higher 
walk in life. 

The Negro lost a great champion, the world a great sym¬ 
pathizing friend. He was born a great leader, because a 
splendid follower of Jesus. Ten million Negroes, men, 
women and children, mourn the loss of this man of God. 
:Such men come to the earth by ones. We miss Bishop C. 
-G. G., but will never forget him. 


58 


LECTURE ON RELIGION AND EDUCATION 

AT JACKSON. 

'To the People and For the Benefit of the People: 


As I am now in yoiir midst and see so many needs for 
the people, I will tell you of a great need that will lead to 
a higher and a better citizenship. My subject will be 
Christianity and Education. 

To me it seems beyond all possibility I can meet the 
demand of today as an orator, but I am going to try to 
put my thoughts and some of my experiences in veriting, 
God being my helper, that it may help some fallen man, 
woman or child to turn from shame and ruin, by seeing 
tlieir mistakes in print and grow to noble man oi' woman¬ 
hood. 

That Avhich should awaken this nation is to work for 
the advancement of God's kingdom. In my heart, to use 
this privilege, to the glory of Him in wliose name all men 
ought to speak, the noble men that this is to be criticized 
by, that thought affects me very much in my beginning to 
write, but the great people will have sympathy for me, 
and will say you had to make a start in life. With this 
thought I will continue. If I could only give what my 
people need or deserve, of course my writing would merit 

enshrinement in the annals of immortal truth. Will vou 

« 

take these ideas for your consideration? 

First, from the nature of Christianity; second, is the 
testimony upon which it is offered. The life of Chris¬ 
tianity is love. All hearts are oppressed with feeling that 
the world is ajar, that nothing is complete, nothing peir- 
fect here. All hearts are yearning for the perfect, and 
so w^e are turning day by dn.j from this thing to that, 
searching vainly for that which •^vill or can fill the soul, 
and this is the apostle to th^ Gentiles, speaking of th« 
glory wkich shall be unveiled in us, declares that the earUr 
est expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifes¬ 
tation of the sons of God. So the object of religion is not 
to rob you of pleasure, but to add to your life. Joy, oh 


59 


why are we so far from home, seeking the pleasure of 
sin ? The disciple declares he that dwelleth in love, dwell- 
eth in God and God in him. Now, Christianity re-estab¬ 
lishes the relation of love originally existed between God 
and man, and so brings us back to God. Oh, happy souls, 
you know that now your sins are forgiven. The happiest 
home on earth is that ruled by love. The happiest soul in 
that home is that one that loves most. Do von wish to 

t/ 

know the fulness of joy? Go to God, who is love, and 
glor}^ is in love, so you see though you are young, if you 
are a Christian your SOUL will be filled with joy. Reve¬ 
lations (chapter 8, verse 17) says I love them that love 
me, and them that seek me earlv shall find me. Also 1st 
Peter (1st chapter, 8th verse). Whom not having seen ye 
love, in whom though you now see him not, yet believing 
ye rejoice ; so ye see this promise is to you. It is perfectly 
easy for the young to become Christians, for Solomon - 
says. ^‘Remember now thy creator in the days of thy 
youth.” It is proven that religion is good for the young, 

so is education. There are three necessities to be noted 
here. What is education? Who should have it? How 
are they to have it? It is that force in the world that 
seems to idolize itself in the world, and especially in the 
mind of humanity, and its purpose is to draw out that 
which would most likely lead us astray. Education 
fills in nature that consoles our way. It takes from us the 
darkness of distrust, and shades in us a light of intellect¬ 
uality and hope; it takes from us that IDLE disposition 
and fills in us a busy spirit of life. Why all people should 
be educated because it helps you to think right, act right, 
and do right. Education will enable you to think magnifi- 
centl 3 ''. AVe don’t want to educate to play smart men and 
women, not to get positions and if not big places no place 
at all. No, that it not its object. If you Avant success in 
life don’t escape the small opportunities, as being beneath 
your dignity, because yon are educated, but have a yearn¬ 
ing and passion for life that shall be rich and fruitful, of 
service to j^our fellowman in small things as Avell as large. 
Then Avhen Ave have failed from the small engagements of 
life to the loftj^ height of intellectuality you can rejoice 


60 


with your comrades from the place from which you came. 

Is the free school all we need by the opoprtimity the 
free school offers us? No, it cannot fill the long-felt need, 
or won’t, for education among us. But as an honest peo¬ 
ple to our children we must tax ourselves and put our 
money into high schools where there are none, that our 
children in the rural district may have equal show wdth 
the children of the city. You want eight or nine months’ 
school for your loved ones if it takes that to educate and 
train the mind while young. Then when strong in stat¬ 
ure, strong in mind, that they can attain the temptable 
things of this life. By earnest study we will get each of 
you in the joyous springtime of life. 

Now, I leave these last words. Commit your wmys on 
the Lord, and He shall direct your path, not for the sake 
of angels, but for Him whose handiwork is seen in the 
firmament, who day by day dashes the evening sky with 
glory and makes the world a gallery of beauty. His hand 
will touch your life into loveliness and tliat life, redeemed, 
sanctified, glorified, shall be, I verily believe, the greatest 
art work by the greatest art master. Invest your money 
trying to save the young people. Then if they fail to heed 
you have done your duty and God will bless you as the 
free giver to the needy. 

Thousands are starving for a chance to know the right 
way to true man and womanhood. The last but not the 
least, don’t spare the rod and lose the child. 

Educate the heart and hand and make men and women. 
May God help you. 

IN NEW ORLEANS. 

Read This and Put the Seller and Maker To An End and 

Save the Boys and Girls.—My Lecture In Defense of 
Temperance In the South. 


Subject, ‘^Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging; 
and w'hosoever is deceived therebv is not wise.” 

In the first place, in this chapter the prophet compares 
the nation of Israel to a vineyard, planted by God, Avho 



61 


loved them with an everlasting love. He did everything 
possible for them, that they might bring forth the best 
fruit, obedience, righteous living, the beauty of holiness, 
joy, love, peace, and all the fruit of the spirit, intelligence, 
noble character and mission work among the nations. He 
placed them in the best country in the world for that pur¬ 
pose. He hedged them around with laws and divine insti¬ 
tutions, and with His own care and love defended them 
from all enemies. He planted in His vineyard the vines 
of His promises. His words, His commandments and in¬ 
structions in holy things. He placed there the wine 
presses, which represented the various advantages con¬ 
ferred on the people to help them bring forth good fruit 
and present it to the Lord. But the expected fruit was 
not brought forth. He looked at it that it should bring 
forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 

So with this nation in general, and race in particular, 
intemperance is the cause of most crime in this country. 

What is the cost of intemperance? MONEY, BLOOD¬ 
SHED, SUFFERING AND MORALS—ALL TO GAIN 
THE AFFECTION OF THE DEVIL, AND FOREVER 
TO BE PUNISHED IN A DEVIL’S HELL. In this Chris¬ 
tian nation, the land of the free and the home of the brave, 
the people spend each year more for drink by twenty 
times than they spend for education. The nation’s drink 
bill exceeds that of our clothes and food combined. Over 
a billion dollars a year is spent for drink. We have more 
saloons than public schools, and more blind tigers than 
saloons in our prohibition counties and states where the 
state law allows men to pay license to sell rum. The 
world needs men that will help the law and officers to run 
down these lawbreakers and show them that this demon 
must not be sold to the unfortunate sufferer. We want 
him to be saved with the blessed. Men seem to believe 
more profoundly in the possibility of strong drink than 
in that of the gospel’s transformation. Friends, did you 
know that hell, saloons and blind tigers are triple sisters ? 
Think, then, look and see this standing army of six hun- 


62 


dred thousands staggering drunkards daily reading their 
way through a Christian nation. What is the fruit of this 
army? Nearly 3,000 murdered wives, 5,000 suicides, 7,000 
murders, 40,000 Avidowed mothers, 60,000 fallen girls, 100,- 
000 orphan children, 10,000 insane, 100,000 Avho die from 
drink annually, 1000,000 boys w^ho take the place of the 
dying, 400,000 paupers made annually, 350,000 criminals, 
2,000,000 sufferers. 

The great wars of the world for tAventy-five years, from 
1852 to 1877, including the Franco-German war and our 
civil AA^ar, cost a fraction over tAA^elve billion dollars. The 
cost for intoxicants for the same period in the United 
States Avas over fifteen billion dollars, three billion dol¬ 
lars more than all the Avars of the Avorld, and for every 
1,000 killed in battle RUM-KILLERS got twelve thousand. 

In the territory covered by the United States there has 
been killed in wars during one hundred and fifty years 
six hundred thousand persons. Strong drink has killed 
seven million five hundred thousand. If all the blood that 
strong drink has caused to be shed could be collected to¬ 
gether in one lake it would be a sea of blood, and many 
ships could sail there, and if all men could see this truth 
they would stand up and fight for temperance and save 
the people. 

Look here in this drunkard’s home. This is for your 
consideration, girls: The first fcAV months the home is 
provided for fairly well. After marriage, though, he tells 
his old friends, ‘‘Boys, I am coming out again. I can’t 
live this way.” So that encourages him to come. Very 
soon the furniture is sold for debts, and he moves into a 
smaller house, or room on a back street, or in some deso¬ 
late country place. He leaves his wife alone, and goes to 
the saloon or blind tiger to loaf and drink. Soon his wife 
is forced by circumstances to earn her living at the wash- 
tub or some cook kitchen. Sometimes she is so fortunate 
that she can make it with her needle, though after a hard 
da3^’s Avork she returns home Avith a broken heart, think¬ 
ing of her mistake in life, “Yes, I have made the mistake 
of my life. happiness is no more. I am now alone 
without fire, Avaiting for that drunkard to come in that 


63 


staggering and quarrelsome way. Oli, if I could only re¬ 
call my childhood daj^s, and enter my father’s home, I 
would take my parents’ advice. Yes, the clock has struck 
12. Hush. I think I hear him. No, that is only the 
cold, bleak winter wind, coming howling over the hills, 
and through the crevices of this drunkard’s home. Oh, 
my God! I hear him coming, drunk. Oh, I wish I had 
never seen him! I am suffering, without bread, without 
fire, Avithout shoes or clothes; then to be tormented Avith a 
drunken demon, is more than any poor Avoman can en¬ 
dure.” She hears him fall against the door at 1 o’clock. 
She gets up and takes the bar from behind the door. The 
first Avord is a muttering oath. “1 Avant that money you 
made today, or I am going to kill you this night.” He 
enters AAuth murder in his heart. Oh, the drunken demon, 
his drunken passion has overcome his better judgment. In 
that moment he pours his Avrath upon the dear one that he 
promised at the marriage altar to love and protect. He 
continues to pound her until she falls unconscious under 
his bloAA^s. The drunkard’s wife is the greatest sufferer. 
There may appear at times that all things are Avell in a 
drunkard’s home, but if you could only know the brief of 
that broken-hearted mother even the saloon keeper Avould 
melt doA\m in tears. 

"illustration: The farmer sows in spring time, and his 
children rise up in autumn and assist in the harvesting. 
So it is with the drunkard. He sows, and all share in reap¬ 
ing, and from the depths of my soul I urge every Avoman 
to AAmtch and pray, and never enter into the dninkard’s 
snare. The drunkard’s home is hell on earth. No young 
man Avho turns the intoxicating cup to his lipe as a bev¬ 
erage, or ever expects to, should ask a pure, beautiful 
young woman for her heart and hand in marriage. 

The liquor traffic is the curse and shame of our country. 
It clogs up the AA^heels of our racial progress, and the deep¬ 
est disgrace of the nineteenth century. It is the mother 
bird that hatches out the daily blood of villainies, the 

father of anarchism, the mother of riot, and friend of 
everything that menaces the church and home. Indeed, 


64 


these are plain words. This is not the time for smothering' 
sentences to dull the edge of truth. I know nothing in 
this broad land so out of place, so disgusting, so sickening 
to the soul of man or woman who really loves God, home 
and native land, as the sight of and works of intemperance 
before an enlightened conscience and family affection. 

It is said that a young preacher was to preach his first 
sermon one Sunday. While the prayer service was going 
on one of the old members came to him and said: “You 
are just starting out, and it is my duty to tell you how to 
go. Then you are a stranger here. Look over there in 
the amen corner; there is five or six of our best paying- 
members that take a drink when they want to Then right 
in front there are two distillery men that make the good 
stuff and they pay well Then the fat old woman there to- 
your left, she sells it. So don’t say anything about the 
making or selling or drinking rum. As there are no Jews; 
here, preach about the sins of them, the Jews.” 

Oil and water will not mix; genuine gospel, religion, 
-tneans a clean man, a clean prayer and a clean worship. So 
whiskey and religion won’t mix, it costs in morals. With 
its iron feet manhood is destroyed, womanhood is de¬ 
bauched and childhood outrages, by the poison that is 
causing humanity to bleed at every pore. Oh, what a 
mocker is intemperance. In this country, through its 
doors, there is passing a great mutitude, already under the 
fatal spell of appetite, and there they are, drinking day 
and night and over the bar, down human throats runs a 
mighty stream of alcoholic poison. Indeed, there is no 
tongue to tell nor pen to describe it, and no words furnish¬ 
ing the meanings that will equal the intolerable cursing 
that comes out of the saloon. It is the worst of the con¬ 
sumptions of all the world. Its records show hundreds of 
thousands of souls ruined, but none saved by it. It con¬ 
sumes energy, will, character, body and soul 

A lesson to you: A rich man said to his son, as he en¬ 
tered his home one dark and stormy night, staggering 
drunk: “My boy, I have done everything I could for you, 
and you onh" live to disgrace our family name.”. The 


65 


father then pushed his only son from the door into the 
darkness, but the old man heard him say, ^‘Yes, father, 
you have done all this for me, but it was the whiskey you 
keep in the cellar and on the sideboard that lured me to 
drink, and now brought me to this.” Death came for the 
boy that cold, dreary night. The next day he filled a 
drunkard’s grave, and the father soon died from grief and 
a broken heart. 

Let us further reflect openly the fact that drunkenness 
is of the very same nature as suicide. This is surely the 
bottom, philosophical fact which rests the exclusion of the 
drunkard from the kingdom of heaven. Every man who 
indulges in the evil of drink is thus a gradual suicide, for 
he does with full knowledge that which takes away his 
reason, health, self-control and happiness, and which is the 
sure destroyer of his highest ambition, whether for earth 
or for heaven. Millionaires have been made paupers by 
the degrading beverage; scholars have been converted 
into fools, and philosophers have been transformed into 
driveling idiots. 

Time will not allow me to tell the whole story. It is the 
incarnation of disgrace, poverty, ignorance and death. It 
is sin operating in the earth in its most privileged form. 

All the forces of ignorance, wickedness and weakness is 
found in every glass of liquor. 

In this beautiful world which God has given us there 
are some things that we must leave alone. This was true 
in Eden ere the serpent tempted and threw Adam from 
the high pinnacle of honor. It is still true today. This is 
one of the hardest lessons we have to learn. There is not 
a place or class of peoples who do not actually feel the 
blighting hand of the drink habit. 

This reminds us of the awful fact that no man livest to 
himself, but that we are bound together by the care of 
liuman interest. We must suffer if we live in a land of 
suffering. In our own times and among our own people 
we are warned that the drink habit is the most command¬ 
ing curse, aside from one (I mean outrage upon the female 


66 


sex), in the columns of the daily papers. It has the ears 
of the student of phlosophy and the eyes of the statesman 
and of religion. There is no question so fraught with dan¬ 
ger to the republic as this one. Its baneful influence 
sweeps into every home in the land; it pulls great preach¬ 
ers from their God-given pulpit, throngs and pulls them in 
disgrace to the gutter; it has snatched the ensign of power 
from the millionaire and king, and led him among his 
ranks of beggars; it has torn the tongue of eloquence from 
the mouth of the orator and left him a speechless idiot and 
drinking simpleton; it has robbed the honest laborer of 
his job and made him a shameful occupant of the alms¬ 
house. There is no crime that has not been committed by 
the drunkard and the moderate drinker. Poverty is alco¬ 
hol’s delight, while honor and salvation are hated by this 
king of sin. 

Let us show this nation in general, and race in particu¬ 
lar, it’s responsible for the iniquity that has befallen the 
conscience of the nation. The American peoples are guilty 
of being drunkards by choice. Those who are drunkards 
choose to be ; they exercise their personal liberty. No man 
can (except by unconscious influences) force another into 
drinking or drunkenness, hence it is, to my mind, a matter 
of choice. 

This is the basis of the objection raised against the pro¬ 
hibition movement, that it prevents freedom and would 
legislate morality in men. 

Here is another way we, as a nation, have become re¬ 
sponsible for the drink habit: It is the admission that this 
nation grants the traffic the commission—the national, 
state and city governments all over the country receive a 
revenue from the men who traffic in the making of drunk¬ 
ards. Every bayonet of the national government is mor¬ 
ally bound (if such a state of affairs should demand it) to 
support the traffic, since it receives its license from their 
national government. 

The same is true of state and cities where it is licensed— 
the constabulary is bound to protect the agents by which 
it thrives. Common sense demands that this positive licens- 


67 


iiig, and the quiet consenting to it, are the two elements 
responsible for the presence in the nation, the worst foe 
to human organized government that has confronted a civ¬ 
ilization. 

It is a refreshment of soul to note the different attitudes 
that the nation turns to the drink habit and that which 
they presented years ago. 

Today, instead of the pulpit being under the control of 
the demon rum, as formerly was, too, found, we we find 
the pulpits of all denominations crying out in no uncertain 
sounds against the traffic of liquor. 

I thank God that the ministers of the gospel are the 
leaders of state and national movements for the final de¬ 
thronement of king alcohol. 

The church, through its leadership, has taken HIGHER 
GROUND, and is now combatting every inch of the ground 
against the foe of the home, the church and the state. 

A cry is heard: ‘ ^ The money from the saloon for the ed¬ 
ucation of the youth.” Pray, tell me, what does the in¬ 
temperance care for the education? 

IT IS BUT AN OPEN FIELD FOR THE CREATION 
OF THE DRINK APPETITE AMONG OUR BOYS. SO 
PUT IT OUT BY YOUR VOTE AND TAKE CARE OF 
THE YOUTH. 

God bless you all. 


68 


MY LECTURE AT GULFPORT ASKING FOR 

THE LAW. 

Now, to my many friends of my race, there is one thing 
we want to learn, and that is to make friends. There is 
no way of knowing whether we have more or less today 
than in the days gone by. This question need not be an¬ 
swered, but today the Negro is in very sad need of strong 
friendship among white men, north and south. The Negro 
needs friendship that finds its basis not in sordid and self¬ 
ish motives, nor yet born of pity and mere sympathy, but 
the Negro needs the friendship that finds its tap-root in a 
belief in his capacity for development, and believe in the 
creation that all men were created equal and are entitled 
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Some say it 
is now time for the Negro to act for himself. Fifty years 
of help has brought justifiable results, and that his fullest 
development is to come, by an exercise of the strength al¬ 
ready attained. The Negro heartily thanks you for all 
past favors, but the whole race rejoice when he learns 
from any source that the white brother is yet his friend. 

The night when Lawyer Harris, of Oklahoma City, failed 
to meet his appointment, the Lord sent Dr. Ball, who took 
up the cross for Jesus. Those heart-stirring words from 
that broad man of God made me think of two of the great¬ 
est men for the right I ever heard from the pulpit. Though 
they both are at rest, waiting the final resurrection, then 
to help crown him lord of all, one of them, the M. E- 
Church, South, the other M. E. Church. 

WE LOVE MEN THAT ARE FOR GOD. Let tha minis¬ 
ters invite the white brother, that he can see that we are 
not dragging, but we are going forward as you started us. 
There are some that think we are a poor, helpless, ragged, 
forleorn, wretched and despised people. But, kind sirs, 
we are passing from the epoch of sentiment unto the pe¬ 
riod of worth and merit. 

Alike, the Negro’s friends and the Negro himself must 
make a fair interpretation of his movements. Neverthe¬ 
less, the Negro is in need of patriotic friends. The Negro 
needs courageous friends. Men and women who count not 


69 


in championing the right, we ask for nothing more for the 
Negro than can be asked in the name of American princi¬ 
ples—opportunity to make out of life all possible, unmo¬ 
lested and untrammeled. 

Morally and all other ways that mean upward for a 
fallen race that has served the other for nearly three cent¬ 
uries, we now-ask for your friendship and protection, as a 
helpless people. Don’t make us prisoners just because you 
are the law, and the country is yours. We know this, and 
want to be law-abiding citizens. We have a part. We ask 
you to punish the guilty when he violates the law, there 
are things that if you think some Negro is guilty of you 
want to kill the first Negro you see, and generally do kill 
maybe two or three before you are satisfied or get the right 
party, let it be another’s sister or anybody, that is wrong. 
God has got his eye on you. He will not bless your chil¬ 
dren unless you learn to obey his word. 

I want to feel at home and safe, as long as I am right 
with the laAv of God and the law of the land. We want 
your friendship. You are strong. Won’t you help us to 
feel that you are for the right and for the right only. 

We ask you in the name of God to punish the violators 
and protect the innocent. May God bless you even if you 
are not right, and you may see your mistake and get right 
today. 

One question to you, reader. Is your heart right with 
God ? If not, I advise you to get right today. This may be 
the last chance in this life. As life is uncertain, but death 
is sure, prepare today to meet your God. 

My last word to you is to love ye one another. 


70 


THE GREATEST AND MOST BIARVELOUS WAR IN 
THE AGES OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

The Negro took a great part and filled all requirements 
Avitli honor and heroic deeds, from the common labor to 
the highest office given him by merit. He gave his life 
freely, believing to be making things better at home and 
to help hold the honor that America has won in the past. 
He did not go as a slave, conscripted or a deserter, but as 
a valiant soldier he died for the great cause. You told 
him to make the world safe for all nations to live in,. For 
more than four fearful years the war swept fearlessly 
through the continent of Europe and blazed in many, 
many ports of Africa and Asia. Thirty nations and scores 
of different races were involved. Nearly ten million men 
were slain in battle. Thirty million were injured. Thou- 
sans were made cripple or insane. No country on earth 
escaped the losses and terror of the war in some of the 
many forms. The high seas were ravaged. The Negro 
helped to stop it, but thousands of ships were sent to the 
bottom. Mothers, daughters, little children, nurses, teach¬ 
ers and ministers of all religion were slain or suffered 
death by starvation and disease, when horror was at its 
height, when the world stood aghast and the defenders of 
civilization were almost overwhelmed then America, with 
her great force of white and black, plunged into the hot¬ 
test furnace of the war and snatched victory from the 
jaws of defeat. Yfho would have believed such before it 
happened? Two million American boys were rushed 
across the dangerous seas to fight in France, and three 
million more were ready to follow (white and black). We 
were together in war, why not together at home in peace ? 

Miracles of valor were wrought in foreign lands by our 
own boys (white and black), who but yesterday were 
quietly stocking the things most needed at home, play¬ 
ing base and football, working in offices, factories, mines 
and farms, and so on. Though today the Avar is over and 
many are sleeping beneath the troubled soil of France. 
This alone is plenty to stir the manhood of all the world 
to see hoAv freely we gave our boys to the call. Noav, try 
Avith all their power to protect our people by the laAv, 


71 


and let all the people preach and teach one thing—thou 
should' not kill. Here is one trouble that caused a deal 
ri 'O-f hatied against the Negroes not dealing with him and 
. taking here says some times the white man sees the Ne¬ 
gro’s progress in city and country, and his great prepara¬ 
tion he is making, asks himself, won’t this some day de¬ 
mand social ecpiality? 

The Negro answers, ‘‘No.” 

Why not? 

The Negro does not want social equality, and won’t 
have it. The South will never consent to it. You are the 
law, though as soon as the Negro begins to ask for a 
uglier education, better homes, churches and more pre- 
rnroH ^e^d- 'S some one says he wants to associate with 
the white people, but that is a mistake, he is only pre¬ 
paring to have some one in his oAvn race of high, noble 
character to associate with. 

Now, my friends, to stop lynching, it doesn’t mean that 
the N.egro will be any greater than he is at this present 
•day; but it only indicates that the Negro will think that 
you have decided to obey the word of God, the Command¬ 
ment. 

Now, to my Southern friends, that love law and order, 
will you only'decide to give aU men justice and let ven¬ 
geance be God’s? You can protect the purity of the white 
race and never, lynoh a single man. Let your statue law 
have its coui'se. I believe in every race forever remaining 
as God made them; and all men believe the same when 
they believe right. 

My Southern friend, I know why you are not willing to 
open the door of politics to the Negro, and try to keep 
him, as far in the dark as you can, thinking that will be 
one step toward social equality; but I must say that is 
not true. If that was true, it would take 669 years for 
the Negro in the South to climb the ladder and reach its 
its height, making 60 rounds per minute. Give him a 
square deal in all business things. 

Tw'O thousand years in advance, continuously going at 
electric speed; give him a chance (please), help us to raise. 


72 


The strong ought to help the weak. Then why not give 
the Negro the benefit of the doubt, as you have made the 
laws. We are not happy at times, though we never desire 
to be anything but what God made us. We do not ask for 
.social equality and do not want it. We only want law 
and order to all men alike. You help us by your life and 
work to develop great things in the Negro. Lynching is 
only a disgrace to any civilized nation. We like wealth 
and happiness, though we want to be Negroes, and not 
white. 

Now, as a God-fearing race, and one who the world 
ought to be proud of, don’t allow your hatred on the act 
of progress to cause you to try to prevent the progress of 
a helpless race. You are in front, so lead the Negro to 
higher and nobler things, as he is expecting this of you. 
Do not hinder us, but help us. If you do that, teach and 
preach to the Negro; never tell him that he can never be 
..great, and that only the white man can. You will change 
the idea of the few that want to be white back to where 
he belongs. Only a few Negro women in the South want 
to be white, and they ought to be lynched, if anybody on 
God’s earth ought to be, for trying to rob a white girl of 
her life-long happiness. 

A Negro can be great and noble as any man if he will 
work and make preparations to that end. It is the advice 
to encourage him to stick to his own race at all times and 
-all places, then encourage him to make preparations to 
own farms and some of the best land of God’s earth, build 
beautiful homes on the farms, raise plenty of poultry, 
hogs, horses, mules and last, but not least, and a host of 
noble sons and daughters; encourage them to have good 
churches, painted houses, music in their homes, churches 
and schools, then employ the best preachers and teachers, 
then have your community fairs and everything to en- 
- courage good farming and stock raising; stop lynching 
and help the Negro by treating him as you wish to be 
treated. Then the North cannot do you any harm. For 
•contradicting your word, the Negro is killed as soon as 
night comes. In certain communities, in some parts, are 
worse than others. Though you can beat, kick, take his 
-daughters or wife and drive him from his home, or do any- 


73 


thing to him you want to, and he can’t say a murmuring 
word. This is all the past, I hope, and not in this genera¬ 
tion since the war, and may the South, the place the Negro 
loves so well, remain his home. Tell him you are the law, 
and 1 am going to take care of you by the law, as you are 
trying to be a man. I am going to help you. Then stop 
lynching, and that will satisfy the Negro. Let the law 
settle all cases. You are the law, the law will hang him, 
wait a few days. Don’t allow the sentiment to take the 
law regardless to what happens. I know some things are 
mighty hard, though just wait a few days, the law will do 
the same thing of a mob; men, be patient. We do not 
want to protect crime, but believe in punishing criminals, 
and protect the innocent. Don’t you? 

Let Democracy ring and all men love the law and obey 
the same. Then have a safe world to live in, as you have 
made the law safe for the protection of the people, make 
the black man safe in America, and where he wants to live 
and die; but not by a mob, but a civilized death. Then we 
know that all the good things must have started some 
time or another from the white man. As you are a pro¬ 
ducer and an inventor for good or bad, so we want you 
always to feel that we need more good and noble things to 
continue to fill our minds, that no bad things can enter. 

The Negro don’t want to live in the white neighborhood 
if you give him proper protection by the officer, good 
streets, walks, light and sewer and other things for the 
convenience and happiness of the Negro as much as for 
the whites. Give our teachers wages that will satisfy 
them, and we v ill assure you there will never be a Negro 
that will ever desire to enter one of your schools, any 
branch of learning. 

We want to be as we are and associate with our own 
race, and not the white. Why not put two or three of 
these little schools together and make one good school, 
with prepared teachers, teachers and preachers can help 
to stop the cause of lynching. Give us a chance to prepare 
our children and you will never hear of one wanting to be 
white. 


74 


You can find' in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the Negro can 
go to any school, though they have colored schools in col¬ 
ored districts. And many children attend their own 
school in’ order to be with t^ieir race. So we are anxious 
to be with our own people. Pie believes that social equa^l- 
ity will injure him, as,bad as you think it will you. We 
thank the South for trying to let each race prove his 
worth in this-great world progress and to keep each race 
separate. The Negro knoW’s what it would mean for the 
white man to be in our homes with his money,'■education, 
looks and power. It would mean a moral destruction. 
So put up the fence, socially, higher, that he may never 
get in our race without shame on himself or his people as 
ivell as ours. So don’t handicap our women by introduc¬ 
ing anything to them in the South but purity. We mean 
to go upward and to live with Jesus, who suffered and 
died on the cross, that we all might have a right to the 
<-'’ee of Ufe. Women, be loyal to your father and husband. 
Do unto others as you wish others to do unto you. The 
white man is not so bad, though it seems when brought in 
enntact with some women with physical attraction and 
whom he has no respect, the sexual passion asserts itself 
powerfully, and with no respect or fears then he ad- 
varced his thoughts and words. As our women are the 
mothers of a great race, we must keep all intruders out 
that we possibly can. 

How bad the Negro would feel if he were called on to 
associate with the v^hite people. I will say for my whole 
race, if you would stop lynching the Negro and try all 
cases according to law and give the Negro the advantage 
of the doubt, according to the evidence, we would prove 
to you our worth. Give him a fair chance on the farm, 
give him a chance in business affairs and stop the immi¬ 
gration. 

To make the Negro the happiest people on earth give 
him justice. Make this law appear in your State—that 
any county or State where a man is killed by a mob must 
pay to his legal representatives five to ten thousand dol¬ 
lars, and there will be no more lynching among Negroes. 
You have hung only a few women. A few years ago a 



75 


mother and daughter were hanged in the same State—a 
very sad affair it was indeed. I passed at the time, and 
the mob hissed me on, and I did go. It was a shame on a 
civilized nation that lost thousands of her sons over the 
sea who were fighting for democracy. May God reign at 
home and then spread abroad. Our Southern hands are 
stained with the blood of few innocent Negroes for a 
crime and no guilt. The two girls were innocent associ¬ 
ates for a Southern paper. A trial before a court would 
have been among us with no stain of innocent blood. At 
the same time two brothers (boys), hanged for the same 
offense, later they found out that the party had com¬ 
mitted suicide, yet four of my race paid the penalty, which 
was death. 

Now, think for one moment how easily a white man can 
appear as a Negro by disguising himself with paint or 
soot and the crime is put on a Negro of the same size; and 
the girls the only way to identitfy him. I know a 
case where two white men and two women met two col¬ 
ored men and went to a certain place for the purpose of 
robbing a house. They killed the inmate of the house, 
set the house on fire, then let the Negroes go, that they 
might return in opposite direction and go with them to do 
the robbery. Now, after the house was burned they felt 
guilty and soug’ht to lynch the two colored men, for fear 
they would tell it. The Negro is an eye-witness to many 
things. If the court knew them they could make this a 
better country; but if you will tell the Negro you will 
lynch him, and this is a white man’s country. You say 
the poor fool will say “Yassar,” and he wouldn’t own it 
to God. You don’t have to keep the Negro down—just 
keep going as you are, and you will keep in front. Help 
us to get up, Mr. President, Senator, Congressman, Gov¬ 
ernor and all officers of the U. S. A., as you are a few out 
of thousands that know why the Negro is in such, a stir 
and trying to find refuge. Since you have saved Belgium 
and so many foreign nations, the Negroes were in the 
fight over there, and noAV he is at home asking every 
American to make all parts of America safe for the Negro 
TO live in, the South as well as the North, East or YYst. 


76 


I am a Southern man. 1 want to remain in the South and 
I appeal to all my race this is the best place to live. So 
help me by making the law his protection—not some other 
part of the Democratic Government. Be as your leader, 
all the world’s friend, who is now touring the U. S. A., 
trying to give you light, and I am writing asking you to 
accept the same and be men for right and die before you 
will surrender to the wrong, protected by the law, and the 
Negro is satisfied and will remain at home for ever and 
ever. Amen. 


“IF IT IS PRINTING WE DO IT.” 





(PRESS ROOM) 

DUBLIN PRINTING COMPANY. 
Favorite Job and Book Printers. 
“See Us Before You Have It Done.'' 


WE PRINT FOR 

Churches 

Societies 

Lodges 

Clubs 

Banks 

Parties 

Entertainments 
of all kinds. 

And all Business 
Institutions. 


Our Modern 

Electric Fixtures, 
new Machinery, 
latest styles of 
Type Faces, and 
Experience work¬ 
men are sure to 

sotisfy. 

We do color work 
fancy and artistic 
printing, all kinds 


WE PRINT 

Books 

Calendars 

Folders 

Postles 

Stationery 

Notes 

Circulars 

Cards 

Pamphlets 

Labels 

Fans 

and, etc. 


If we cannot 

save you money 
time and worry 
we do not want 
your work. 


421 Beale Avenue 


Prompt and 
Blanks Reliabla Service. 

WIEftflPHS, TENN. 















327 BealeAvc. 


This is one of Memphis’ most progressive and 
up-to-date Dentist Parlors. The modern equip- 

I 

ment and workmanship is unsurpassed by any 
dentist parlor in the South for colored. 

ALL WORK STRICTLY GUARANTEED. 


pD 

















MR. A. F. WARD 

Cashier of Fraternal Savings Bank & Trust Co.. 
358 BEALE AVE. 


MEMPHIS, TENN. 











































MR. JAxMES 


£. 


WASHINGTON 


Editor and Publisher of the 

Vv^ESTERN WORLD REPORTER 


5 EEAL2 AVE. 


MEMPHIS, 


TENN. 

































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